From the Stars she came
by Zerodone
Summary: Moon is, has always been and will always be different than other humans. The Pokémon around her can feel it. Her "fellow humans" are as of yet unaware of her true nature. All except one that is.
1. Chapter 1

Moon let out a sigh, as she placed herself on her desk's chair. She hadn't been aware that they owned so much stuff. Sure moving to a new place was always tiring work and it's those times where one realized just how many little things one had accumulated over the years, but why in the name of the Xel'Naga did they own so many Pokédolls? Meowth alone had thirty of them to play with, half of which he hadn't even touched in years. Although honestly, the worst part out of everything had to be taking the closets apart and then stuffing every single part into the delivery truck. She could only imagine how much of a pain it would be to put it all back together later in Alola.

Speaking of Alola, Moon just remembered that there was still a call scheduled for today, one that would be going through Skype. With that in mind, she turned on her PC and readjusted the webcam, while it booted up. She noticed that the cable had accidentally come off. Moon figured it must have happened while she was moving her furniture around. After all, the house needed to be cleaned too, before the new owners settled in.

The familiar sound of the bootup process being complete returned Moon's attention to the desktop screen. It now showed a variety of programs she had installed on her computer, along with the standard pre-installed desktop background. She didn't have that particular computer for long, as such she had not bothered to fully customize the device to her personal preferences and needs, aside from the basics.

With a double click of her mouse, she ordered the machine to activate the software known as Skype and after a little bit of additional loading time, it was online, showing a rather lackluster list of contacts Moon had collected over the years. Only two of them were currently online, with one of them being noted as "absent". The second one called Moon on her account, probably as soon as she was noted for being "online" on their Skype-Tab.

"Professor Kukui" it read on Moon's desktop, the annoying phone call sound coming out of the speakers, from beside her monitor. Letting out a quiet sigh, she accepted the call. A separate window opened, revealing the caller on the other side. Professor Kukui for some reason didn't wear a shirt of any kind, which may be due to the fact that it was quite warm in Alola.

What he did wear was a lab coat, a silly looking cap with a sun symbol on it and safety glasses of all things. His skin was a healthy light brown, he had a little beard growing from his chin and his eye color was a slightly darker brown.

The picture however at first was a little unclear and askew.

"Hang on, now. Gimme just a sec…" The professor readjusted his own webcam with his right hand until the picture was clear. The professor then waved with his other hand at the camera.

"Hey there, good evening." he greeted Moon.

"Evening Prof." Moon greeted back, though with way less enthusiasm.

"Whoa there, you look a little down cousin. What's up?"

"Not much." Moon shrugged, placing her arms on her desk. "Just the stress of packing slowly getting to me. I swear if I ever move to a new place, I'll hire a company to do the packing."

"Haha." Kukui laughed. "You need to get some meat on those bones of yours! Look at you, you're almost a skeleton." He made a gesture with his hand.

"Tch, yeah, yeah, heard that one a million times already." She placed her elbow on the table and her head inside her hand. "Well, whatever." Moon took a pamphlet from her desk and held it in front of her webcam. "I informed myself a bit about Alola, its islands and the such. Is it true that Ninetails in Alola are ice type?"

Kukui nodded, grinning. "Yup. Pretty cool, huh? And it's not just ninetails! A lot of Pokémon have a different type here in Alola. The most common theory is that they adapted to Alola's climate and unique vegetation over the years."

"They adapted, huh…" Moon spoke thoughtfully. "It must have taken hundreds, if not thousands of years for them to evolve that way."

"That's usually how nature works," Kukui replied. "Well, except for the normal evolutions of course. They're another topic altogether."

Kukui leaned forward a little. "So, are you ready to meet some new Pokémon?" The professor held up a Pokéball and casually threw it into the air. There was a short flash of light and landing directly on the professor's lab came a Rockruff. Moon had read about this particular Pokémon species. Apparently, they were one of the most common species in Alola and were often held as pets by none-trainers.

The Pokémon looked at the camera for a couple of seconds, but soon enough lost interest and started sniffing around Kukui's desk. The tail was the only thing visible to Moon for a time, until the dog-like creature jumped on the professor's lap, looking up at the man expectantly.

"Hehe, Rockruff, can you wait until I'm done talking to play?" The professor asked his Pokémon. It in return barked seemingly in agreement and jumped off the lap.

"So, what do you think? Isn't Rockruff a cute little fella?"

In response, Moon let out yet another sigh. "Yeah, I guess. He looks...friendly," she said after a moment of hesitation.

"You guess? Oh, come on, what's that for an answer? I mean just look at him!" Professor Kukui looked around the ground, but couldn't find Rockruff anywhere.

The girl smiled a little. "Sorry, I guess I'm just tired from packing. And we're still not done for today!" she complained loudly, throwing her arms up. She returned them to the table and lazily placed her chin on them.

"I already told ya! You need some meat on those bones of yours!" Kukui replied, having given up on looking for his Pokémon. "Or you could just hire a moving company? Machamps are really useful for carrying heavy stuff around, what with them having four arms."

Moon flinched a little at the mention of the specific Pokémon.

"We...uh...tried that." She looked to the side. "They...uh...ended up breaking a lot of our stuff."

"Huh? Really?" Kukui asked surprised. "You did hire a legit company, right? And not someone who just evolved their Pokémon without some legit training."

"We hired Pokétransport," Moon told the Professor, who was even more confused.

"Pokétransport? But they're pretty well known on a global scale. We even have them here down in Alola and they helped me arrange my new lab a couple of years ago." he spoke thoughtfully. "I didn't have any kind of problem with them. Maybe you just had bad luck?"

"Bad luck, huh…" Moon still looked to the side.

"Hey, are you alright? Don't tell me they broke anything special." The Professor sounded concerned on the other end. When Moon looked up, she found the man looking concerned at her. Technically his camera, but one gets the gist.

"Nothing too special. But they broke a lot of our stuff, including Meowth's favorite bowl." The girl looked back up to her screen, a smile appearing on her face. "He threw quite the fit, let me tell you. I had to hold him back from scratching the human workers."

"Hehe, yeah. Snubbull gets snippy too if I take his bowl away and wash it." Kukui snickered. "Anyways, onto a brighter topic, you're gonna come to Alola to become an awesome Pokémon Trainer!"

The smile immediately disappeared from Moon's face and was replaced with worry. Kukui, of course, noticed this and asked Moon about the sudden mood change.

"Hey, what's wrong? Aren't you excited about becoming a trainer?"

Yet another sigh escaped Moon's lips. She mentally noted that she did that a lot today. "Let's just say, my track record with Pokémon is not the best." She explained.

"Not the best? You aren't scared of Pokémon, are you? I mean, you do have a Meowth." Kukui pointed out.

"No, it's not that." Moon shook her head, but then reconsidered the words she just said. "Well, not alone I guess. It's… hard to explain. The best way to describe it is that Pokémon simply does not like me."

"Now that's just ridiculous." Kukui proclaimed. "Maybe you're just too nervous around Pokémon and they notice it. Pokémon is smarter than most people realize. But they still act a lot on instinct and react accordingly, when they feel threatened. You just need to calm yourself down, when you're around them. I mean, you do get along with your Meowth, don't you?"

"That's just because I was there when he hatched from his egg. He's already used to me." Moon argued back.

Kukui grinned. "Ah, don't worry nothing. I'll be there with you when you get to meet your new Pokémon. Tell you what, when you're here, you can come over to my laboratory and meet my Pokémon here! They're all super friendly and used to new trainer since I help them out all the time."

Moon looked thoughtful for a moment, before looking back at Kukui. "I think I'd rather have you meet with me when I meet the new Pokémon. At least they won't be as strong as trained ones."

"Hmm? Sorry, I couldn't understand you there. Could you repeat the last part?"

"Just talking to myself," Moon said non-chantilly.

"If you say so. Anyways, since you're going to be a trainer, you'll need a Trainer Passport. Your mom already sent me a bunch of photos, but I haven't picked one yet. Since it's your passport we're talking about, you should decide which one is going to be on it."

Moon shrugged. "Alright, show 'em."

Kukui nodded. Moon could see his arm moving around, presumably moving his mouse around. There was a series of clicks until finally, a group of eight pictures in two four-rows appeared on Moon's screen. She immediately facepalmed.

"Oh ?! She sent you the ones, where I'm wearing that stupid hat?!" she exclaimed.

"What's wrong with hats?" Kukui asked genuinely surprised.

"Nothing! This one just looks stupid! I only wore it that one time because it was a birthday present and I didn't want to disappoint her!"

"Sheesh, aren't you overreacting just a little bit? I think it looks good." Kukui stated.

Moon pouted in return. "Typical boys. Have no sense of fashion whatsoever. Okay, give me a second. I'll just shoot you a new picture with my webcam."

"Er...alright." the professor shrugged.

Moon quickly opened a Skype-Menu and went to her webcam options. A few clicks later the device was ready to take her picture. She just made sure that her hair was alright and then brought up a smile, before taking the picture. Her face had been perfectly taking in. It showed her emerald green eyes, her small nose and luckily unlike her mother, her lips were not too big for her face. She did, however, get the red hair color from her mother, which she just led loosely hang around her shoulders. Of course, in the picture, one couldn't see the true length of her hair, just that it was red.

Satisfied, she sent the picture over to Kukui.

"Ten-four cousin. Hmm, hey I just noticed, but the skin color of your mom is way darker. Is that some kind of genetic quirk or do you come more after your father?" he asked genuinely curious.

"She didn't tell you?" Moon asked, tilting her head. "Delaila is not my mom. She's just my caretaker."

"Your caretaker?!" Kukui repeated, alarm bells going off inside his head.

"Yup," Moon replied as if she was talking about the weather. "My real mom and dad they… let's just say their jobs keep them quite busy. They tried to raise me, but it was too much in the end and they couldn't just abandon their jobs."

"Oh...I had no idea." Kukui looked sad. "I'm sorry." He looked down.

Moon sighed once again. Hopefully, this wouldn't turn out to be a thing. "Why does everyone keep acting like my mom and dad abandoned me? Or assumes they're dead? Urrgh, I'm not even gonna argue anymore."

Kukui definitely had not been expecting this kind of reaction and was silent for a couple of moments, long enough for Moon to get annoyed.

"Ahem, Professor?"

"Wha-?! Ah yes, right, right. I got your picture." The man quickly tried to find composure again. "Okay, the only thing missing is your full name. It was a three parter, right? Can you type it in, so I don't accidentally misspell it?"

"Sure thing." Moon opened the chat menu and typed in her name.

"Scarlet Moon Raynor?" Kukui read aloud. "Wow, now that's a combination!"

"I prefer it if people call me Moon."

"Really? Why?" Kukui asked.

"I don't like being called after a color and Raynor is more of a male name. So, Moon, it is. Though I wish I knew why my parents named me after a big, shiny rock."

"I think it's a good middle name. It gives you a mysterious vibe, ya know? Oh, wait! Scarlet Moon! Now that's a name that hits you like a Thunderbolt outta the sky! Woo!" It was obvious that the Professor was very enthused about the topic.

"Actually, not bad." Moon tapped with her finger on her chin. "It makes me sound like I leave a trail of blood from my fallen enemies behind."

"Whoa, whoa, let's not go that far!" The professor leaned back in his chair and held both of his hands up, clearly shocked about the statement the girl just made. "Sheesh, what kind of movies do they let you kids watch nowadays?"

"The kind of movies they don't notice us watching," she replied with a grin. "But seriously Professor, have you ever been on the internet?"

"Uff, you should really look out with where you go on the net. There's a reason us adults don't let you watch some stuff until you're older."

Moon gave the professor a deadpan expression. "When I was five, I accidentally ran into my parents having sex."

That caught the professor so much off guard that he fell off his chair. A very loud and surprised cry of "WHAT?!" could be heard from Moon's speakers. The girl in question grinned to herself for her accomplishment.

"See you soon, Professor."

Moon cut off the connection before the man could reply. She also deactivated Skype, so that he couldn't send her new messages or make another call. Her smile disappeared and was once again replaced with a frown. She stared at the screen for at least five minutes, until she heard a call from Delaila.

"Moon, sweetie! Can you help me with those boxes?"

"And back to work," Moon muttered to herself, turning around in her spinny chair and going off to help her caretaker.

XXX

In the evening, Moon and Delilah had successfully finished packing everything into the boxes. Tomorrow the truck would arrive and where they would stash their belongings. The driver then would come with them to the ferry and even tag along all the way to Alola, before returning to Kanto. It was even for a very cheap price. Apparently, that was Pokédelivery's way of saying: "Sorry that our Pokémon broke your stuff."

Moon sighed. Yep, it was definitely becoming a thing. She knew it, Delaila knew it, everyone in town knew it. The reason the Machamps fell into such a panicked state and ran rampage in their house was because of her. Because Pokémon had better senses, they could tell that there was something different about Moon.

Of course, the people and even her two caretakers were none the wiser about her true nature. The townspeople had a lot of different theories as to why Pokémon fell into a panicked state, as soon as Moon was around. From being cursed to being a monster, she heard it all. It didn't even bother her that much. Even before she arrived in Kanto, she had been called a monster behind her back. That was when she was still at her father's workplace.

Her caretaker Delaila? She was blind to the truth. For her, it was always the fault of the Trainer or the Pokémon. Sometimes even both.

Moon stuck the popsicle into her mouth before yet another sigh could escape it. It was her final day in town and she decided to spend it by going to the local store and buy herself some ice cream. Right now, she was just walking around town. Barely anyone was on the street since the sun had almost set on the horizon. The moon, reflecting the sun's light, was already visible to the naked eye. No doubt Delaila would be angry at Moon for being so late.

Said redhead just turned around another corner, when a certain voice suddenly got her attention.

"Hey, there she is!"

And another sigh. "Oh no…"

Turning around, she pretty much confirmed her suspicion. Yup, it was Tony and his merry band of friends, plus one more. Tony was in the same class as Sarah and pretty much an annoyance to everyone who wasn't an annoyance. Never doing his homework, always getting on the nerves of the girls and even get into the one or other fist fight. His friends came from other classes or other schools but were pretty much the same.

Tony was a brat who wore a blue cap, backward, a white shirt, black shorts and a pair of tennis shoes of all things. His friends, Moon never paid them too much attention. The plus one? He appeared to be a little older and had a few Pokéballs around his belt, though she didn't bother remembering his looks. They all looked the same to her anyway, after a while.

"That's her?" the trainer asked, a little confused.

"Yep, that's her! That's the girl who'll give you the "special challenge". Ain't that right, Moon?" Tony asked with a devious grin.

With a silent *pop*, Moon took out the popsicle, looking not very impressed. "Let's just get this shit over with."

"Wow, you sure are lucky," Tony told the still confused trainer. "Usually it takes a little more convincing for her to accept a challenge."

"A challenge. So, is this going to be a Pokémon Battle?" the trainer asked, trying to make sense of the situation.

"Something like that," Moon replied. She pushed the entire popsicle into her mouth and swooped it off the wooden stick in one go. The trainer looked a little bit impressed.

"And the only reason I'm even agreeing is so that you guys leave me alone. Now you, trainer, send out a Pokémon. Any Pokémon. I'll explain everything from there on out."

"Alright…" The trainer replied uneasily but picked up a ball from his belt nonetheless. With a push of the button, he extended the Pokéball and threw it into the air.

"Go Charizard!" He proclaimed and in a flash of light, the dragon-like Pokémon appeared in all its glory. It was a fine specimen, being bigger than most Charizard Moon had seen on TV. The fire-type in question looked around for a bit, possibly for an opponent. When it found none, it at first figured the opposite trainer had yet to send out a Pokémon, that is until its eyes fell on the girl on the opposite side of the street.

Moon threw her wooden stick away with a flicker of her fingers, her stony gaze not leaving the one of the Charizard. From reading some random Pokédex entries online, she knew that Charizards were proud creatures, always looking for a stronger opponent to fight. This could mean trouble for Moon if she wasn't careful.

"So, what's the challenge?" the trainer asked. Tony next to him chuckled.

"Just watch and see what happens." His friends all cackled in various intensity.

"Huh?" the trainer was even more confused than before.

Moon in the meantime had started approaching the Pokémon, which narrowed his or her eyes at Moon. The tail started to swing back and forth, making *whoosh* noises, due to the flame at the end of it. After being halfway there, the Charizard let out a warning growl, getting the attention of his or her trainer, who had been preoccupied with the kids up until this point.

"Huh? What's wrong Charizard?" the trainer asked, but Charizard paid no attention to him. The girl was only a couple of steps away, which was way too close for the Pokémon. It didn't give another warning. It straight up opened its mouth and shot out a torrent of flames. It attacked Moon with flamethrower. Tony and his friends cheered. The trainer screamed in surprise and shock.

The redhead, however, was too focused on the Pokémon, to notice the humans. She had seen the attack coming, the moment the Pokémon leaned back his or her neck to breathe in. As such she had no problem jumping sideways, doing a flip in the air and landing no problem on the ground again. The attack missed her completely and instead hit the asphalt.

"What the heck are you doing Charizard?!" the trainer shouted but was ignored. The Pokémon shot out another flamethrower attack, which was just as easily dodged by the girl, who jumped out of the way to the other side. The air was flickering from where the flamethrower went off.

"Come back!" Not wanting to risk an accident to happen, the trainer called back his Pokémon. "What just happened?!" the trainer exclaimed, looking over to the group of kids, who appeared to be disappointed that the show was already over. Moon dusted her pants off and approached the trainer.

"I think it is fairly obvious what happened."

"What?!" The trainer appeared to be angry. "What did you do to provoke my Charizard?!"

"I didn't do anything," Moon replied coolly, eyeing the trainer from the side. "Pokémon simply can't stand me."

"Huh?! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hehe, yeah! Pokémon can see how ugly you really are!" Tony taunted. "They hate you so much, they either run away or want to get rid of you for good!"

Moon ignored his childish taunts. It was really getting late and she had a long day ahead of her.

"Hey, where are you going?" The trainer shouted, but Moon ignored him as well. "I want answers! Hey, stop! That's my Pokéball!"

At those words, Moon turned, just in time to see another Pokémon to appear. This one turned out to be a Salamence. Moon had to give the trainer one thing, he had pretty impressive Pokémon. Which didn't work to her advantage.

As soon as the dragon laid its eyes on her, they narrowed. Luckily for the redhead, her reflexes were literally superhuman or else she would have ended up with a sliced throat. This way she only lost a few strands of hair, during her backflip.

"Salamence! What the heck?!"

"Woohoo! Rip her apart!" One of Tony's friends shouted.

However, the trainer placed himself between the Pokémon and the human. "What the heck is wrong with you?! Why are you attacking her?"

The Salamence blinked a couple of times, looking at Moon and then at his or her trainer. He or she looked a little confused, indicated by the tilting of his head. It let out a low, non-threatening growl.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, mister! You're going to that girl now and apologize!"

The Salamence growled a little louder, showing defiance.

"What do you mean, no?! You just attacked an innocent girl!"

The Salamence looked over the shoulder of his trainer and at the girl. It downright snarled at Moon, who in return didn't look too impressed.

"Salamence! Alright, that's it, back into your Pokéball!" The trainer raised his ball and a red stream of energy escaped it. It surrounded the Dragon-Pokémon and sucked it back into the ball.

"What the heck?" The trainer muttered, looking at his Pokéball. He immediately turned around, only to see the girl disappearing around the corner of the street. Turning around once again, he found the group of kids evilly grinning at him. He didn't know what was going on, but he would definitely find out.


	2. Chapter 2

Review answers:

Bulldan: Explains how the view counter increased by 15 in a matter of minutes.

Truemmerphantom: I got an idea for the Pokémon. There will be proper Zerg units as well, but not now. Too soon.

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"Mwaaawwwrrrrrr!"

"Gah!"

Moon shot upwards, when she heard the scream of her family's Meowth screaming very loudly. The girl put a hand onto her chest, trying to calm herself. Once her heart rate was at an acceptable level, she turned her attention to the Pokémon in her room. She sent the little cat like thing a death glare, to which the Pokémon just responded with a cheeky grin, before running out of her new room.

Taking in a deep breath, Moon exhaled slowly and shook her head clear. Looking out of the window, which was positioned right next to her bed, she found out that she had been sleeping the entire day away and that it was already night outside.

"Figures." Moon muttered to herself. "At least in space you don't have to be afraid to miss any daylight. Stupid human body, not capable of creating vitamin D on its own." Seriously, these Vitamin D supplements they created for space travel were the worst! Why no one else on the Hyperion had bothered to quickly head over to mom's Leviathan and get a quick treatment from the gene-master was a mystery to Moon.

Letting out a yawn, Moon swung her legs over her bed and just sat there, looking around her new room. It had taken a whole day, but now her room was almost completely set up. The carpet was in place, her old bed obviously was also there, the closet had arguably taken the most time, but it was fully set up, including the mirror inside one of the doors. There was a Ditto plushie in the corner of her vision with Meowth's scratches all over it. Her desk was almost set up, only her PC still needed to be unpacked, along with some other minor things that were still stashed away in some boxes. In fact, those boxes were placed right in front of her bed, three in total and all having been marked with her middle name.

Moon yawned again. She really just wanted to go back to sleep, but if Meowth woke her up in that fashion, it usually meant that Delaila wanted Moon for something. And since Delaila was such a good caretaker, Moon figured she might as well obey her and help the older woman out in the household and the such. With that mind, she made sure there weren't too many wrinkles in her clothes, brushed over them with her hands a few times and headed towards their new living room, slash eating area. She wore nothing too fancy, just a blue tank top and some fitting shorts.

When she stepped out of the room, she found Delaila standing at the entrance to the balcony, with Meowth in her arms. She was slowly stroking the cat normal type over his back, who in return purred like a normal.

"Good morning, Moon. Or rather good evening." Delaila chuckled. "You have been sleeping like a rock."

"Jet lag will do that to you." Moon responded, still sounding tired. "Aren't you the least bit tired?"

"Me? Tired?" Delaila chuckled. "Please, Moon. My old job required me to be awake all night! If anything, I'm used to working through the day and night. You should know that by now."

"Mhm." Moon nodded, trying not to fall asleep on the spot.

"Oh dear, are you still tired?" the dark skinned woman asked in disbelief. "You should be full of energy by now! Come on, you're young! You should enjoy being young."

"Meow!" Meowth agreed with a nod of his head.

"I'll enjoy my youth, once I had my twelve hour nap."

"Oh you!" Delaila playfully ruffled Moon's hair, who just endured it. "Come on, you and I have still plenty of boxes to unpack."

"Urrgh, more boxes?" Moon complained. "Can't it wait until tomorrow? We've been doing this all day!"

"Now, now sweetie, you know-"

*Ding* *Dong*

Whatever Delaila was about to say, got stuck in her throat, when the doorbell rang all of the sudden. She and Moon looked at each other for a second, before looking towards the door.

"Huh. I wonder who it could be."

"I go check." Moon declared and was halfway towards the door and it suddenly was opened from the outside. The girl tensed a little, when the person entered without allowance from the house inhabitants, but relaxed, when it turned out to be none other than Professor Kukui.

"Hey there, Moon! Good to finally meet you in person, cousin!"

"You do know that you're supposed to wait outside the door, until someone from the inside opens it, right?" Moon pointed out.

In response, Kukui laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, don't be like that Moon." Delaila put a hand on Moon's shoulder, smiling. "The Professor and I are old acquaintances. So it's no big deal."

Moon crossed her arms, letting out a huff. "You'll say that until the day we get robbed…" the redhead muttered to herself.

"Hey there, Delaila. Long time no see. Oh and call me Kukui, pretty much everyone does. Welcome to Alola, by the way! You arrived yesterday, right?"

Delaila nodded in return. "Yep. We have been a little busy with unpacking, but are as good as done now. Seeing you again reminds me of the time, you tried yourself on the Indigo League. When you first used your Alolan Pokémon, ah, it was love on first sight. And now I am finally here in Alola."

"Hehe, glad to help. You know, I was supposed to research Kanto Pokémon moves and all that. I thought I knew a thing or two about battling, but those Kanto Gym Leaders proved me wrong." The professor laughed, thinking about the old times.

"That's what Gym Leaders are supposed to do. There wouldn't be much of a point in having a League, if just anyone could win those badges." Moon stated as a matter of fact.

"Haha, too true. Speaking of Pokémon moves, it's time you and I get a move on to the next town! It's time for you to meet the Island Kahuna and get yourself a Pokémon, yeah!"

"A-a Pokémon?!" Moon stuttered in surprise. "A-already?! And what's an Island Kahuna?" she asked after calming down a bit.

"A Kahuna is something like the Protector and Spiritual Leader of the island he or she lives on. Each island has its own Kahuna. And the one in Iki Town is always ready to give new trainers their first Pokémon. Oh, but don't take the Kahuna's on, 'cause I'd put them at least on the same strength as that of a Gym Leader, if not more."

"Duly noted." Moon nodded.

"They'll simply give my girl a Pokémon?" Delaila asked with glee. "These Kahunas really are worth meeting."

"H-hold on, everyone." Moon raised her arms. "Isn't it a bit early for me to get a Pokémon? I mean, we just arrived yesterday and there's still a lot to do here and-"

"Don't be nervous, Moon." Delaila once again put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "I know you had some bad experiences because of Tony and the others, but now you're here in Alola. There are new Pokémon and new people to meet. Plus, Kukui will be with you, when you get to meet the new Pokémon. Isn't that right?" Delaila looked over to the house guest.

"Of course!" The Professor nodded with a grin. "A lot of new trainers are nervous, when getting their first Pokémon. But there's no need to worry, really. Those Pokémon have been raised to work alongside humans. They'll be friendly, you'll see."

Moon held back a sigh, figuring this would go on for ours, if she continued fighting. At least this way, she would get this over with today and hey? There was at least a tiny chance that there would be one Pokémon, which wouldn't react negatively to her being there. Yeah, sometimes false hope was better than no hope.

"Alright. Just let me get my stuff real quick." She told the adults and headed back to her room. After she disappeared behind her door, Kukui turned his attention to Delaila.

"So...umm…" the Professor scratched his cheek with one finger, looking for the right words. "The other day, Moon told me that she… had some trouble with Pokémon? Is that true?"

Delaila huffed, her smile turning into a frown. "It's all the work of those immature children in her class, especially Tony. She happened to meet one Pokémon that didn't react too well to humans and the entire class assumes for some reason Pokémon don't like her at all. At first it was just teasing, but then Tony, one of her classmates, started going to passing Trainers and told them Moon would have a special challenge for their Pokémon."

"Special challenge?" Kukui echoed.

"Of course, there was none." Delaila waved off. "Once the trainer called out their Pokémon, Tony would do something to that Pokémon to make it nervous. Sometimes it's so bad that my poor Moon is outright attacked!"

"Whoa, what?! Really?! Ya gotta be exaggerating!"

"I wish I was." Delaila stroked furiously over Meowth, who decided it was time to jump off her arms. Once he was on the ground, Delaila put her hands on her hips.

"She has been more often to the Pokémon Center than Meowth. I'm just glad it was never too serious, but as you just saw, it hasn't exactly helped her self-conscious, when it comes to Pokémon at least."

"Ouch! I can see why she isn't so thrilled about becoming a trainer." Kukui now frowned himself, which was a rare sight in of itself. "Maybe we really should hold off a few days. Let her settle in and all."

"Oh no, the sooner she meets a nice Pokémon the better." Delaila disagreed. "Trust me. She will just work herself up otherwise."

"If you say so."

Just then the door to Moon's room opened, revealing her to be carrying a small bag and some red shoes. "Sorry it took so long. I forgot to unpack my shoes and needed to look for the right box first." She explained.

"Wow there, cousin. That looks stylish!" Kukui commented.

"Stylish?" Moon frowned, looking at her shoes. "Not really. I just picked up the next best stuff I could find. If you want to see me in style, you need to give me an hour or two at least."

"Haha, well maybe when we have the time. For now, we really need to head to Iki Town." The Professor gave the girl a light slab on the shoulder, before heading outside.

Delaila looked over to her daughter, smiling. "Good luck, sweetie. And bring back a cute Pokémon." She gave Moon a hug, to which the girl hugged back.

"See you later, Delaila."

The woman frowned, upon hearing her adopted daughter saying her first name, instead of calling her "mom", but smiled again once the hug was broken. Moon lazily waved with her left arm, as she made her to the exit.

Outside, Moon found Kukui waiting further down the street. The girl quickly ran up to him.

"Your mom back there, she's really looking forward to you getting a Pokémon." Kukui commented, as he started Moon leading to Iki Town.

"Yeah. I dunno why though, I can be of much more use to her, when I stay at home, instead of going to Pokémon Journey or something."

"What are you saying "more useful"? She just wants what's best for you."

"Hmm...I guess. And she's not my mom, she's just my caretaker." Moon reminded the Professor, to which he winced ever so slightly.

The adult led the girl up a beaten path, which was surrounded by plants on both sides. A faint rustling could be heard by those with the right hearing capability.

"We'll take a shortcut through Route 1." The Professor explained. "We might meet some wild Pokémon, while we walk, so keep your eyes preened. You might see one you have never seen before."

"I highly doubt that." Moon muttered to herself, as she kept up with the Professor. "How long will it take, until we get to Iki Town?"

"Er… around half an hour if we climb a little. But, since we're taking the walk path, I'd say about forty-five minutes tops."

"Alright." Moon nodded. "Too bad I don't have any shoes good for hiking. Are there any places in Alola where you can hike?"

"You like to go on a hike?" Professor Kukui asked with a grin. He put a hand under his chin, thinking. "Well, here on the island, the best place would be Ten Carat Hill, from the top of my head at least. But if you want a challenge, I'd recommend the mountains on Ula'ula Island."

"Thanks. I'll remember that."

As the two continued going uphill, someone else was coming down. In the distance the two could see a Rockruff running around and sniffing on trees. A young boy came running out of the treelines just a second later and started chasing that Rockruff. The dog-like Pokémon started barking happily, while the child laughed as he chased the rock-type downhill.

"Is that child supposed to be awake at this hour?" Moon asked.

"It's not that late." Kukui retorted. "And besides, it's Friday. It's not like Tom over there has to go to school tomorrow?"

"You know him?"

"Yup. I practically know every kid in this area. They all come to me for tips in training or taking care of their Pokémon."

Once the Rockruff was only twenty meter away, it stopped. Tom was taken off guard by this and didn't managed himself from stumbling over his Rockruff. With a help, the boy flew off into the bushes, but landed rather softly. Still was left a little dizzy for a couple of seconds. In those seconds, his Rockruff sniffed the air, until the eyes of the Pokémon fell on Moon. The Professor watched with interest, as the Pokémon suddenly let out a yelp and high tailed in the opposite direction of the two travelers.

"Hey wait!" Tom shouted, freeing himself from some branches. "Where are you going Rockruff?! Wait for me!"

As fast as his tiny legs could carry, Tom ran back uphill, trying to catch up to his Pokémon. Moon imagined this would be a difficult task, given that quadrupled creatures are generally faster than two-legged once.

"Woo! And there he goes! Haha, it looks like Rockruff just sniffed out a grass-type and decided to go for the hills with some Quick Attack action!"

Moon didn't comment on the matter, deciding to stay silent instead. Luckily for her the small Pokémon always ran away. That Rockruff probably had a problem with his or her nose, if it couldn't sniff her out from a larger distance.

"Hmm, I don't remember Rockruff being able to learn Quick Attack." the professor continued. "I better make a note of it." He said and took out a notepad and a pen from his inside pockets, stuffing both away once he was done.

"Did you know that a Rockruff never forgets a scent, once it has smelled it?" the Professor asked the soon to be trainer.

"Isn't that the case with all dog-Pokémon?" Moon asked in retord. "That's why the Jenny family uses Growlithes and Arcanines."

"Well yeah, they can remember a scent, but not for life. Sure if you spent a lot of time with any Pokémon with good smelling, it will remember yours for life, but a Rockruff will remember any scent for life!"

"Ah…" Moon nodded understanding. "That's a useful trait. But, why can only Rockruff remember any scent they pick up? Is there a section of their brain that's more developed than in other Pokémon?"

"Hmm…" Kukui put a hand under his chin. "I would have to ask a colleague to answer that question. I personally specialize on attack moves and how a Pokémon is capable of executing them."

The two reached a section where they had to go to the right, as the left path was blocked by rocks.

"A rockslide happened here two days ago." Kukui explained. "We haven't had the time to clear that path as of yet. Well, we wouldn't take it anyway. That's the part, where you have to climb."

"So, we're going around the hill?"

"Precisely."

The small journey continued for a while without any incident. The path at this section of Route 1 was less steep and more bearable as a result. Moon noted that there were more trees on the uphill part. Not enough to make a forest, but more than enough to provide living places for bird-Pokémon to nest in. Away from the beaten path, the grass was tall enough to reach knee height for a grown up person, meaning for Moon it reached her waist.

"It's so quiet." Kukui commented. "If it weren't nighttime, we'd be hearing all kinds of bird Pokémon chirping away. Still, there are some nocturnal Pokémon, which we might meet if we're lucky enough."

"Like what? A ghost-type?" Moon asked, but Kukui shook his head.

"No, you won't find any ghost-types on this side of the island. They usually hang out around the cemetery."

"Why though?" Moon questioned immediately. "I mean, I get the whole stereotypical thing of ghosts and cemeteries, but why only cemeteries and other places related to death? Why don't they show up, I dunno, in the jungle, the woods, heck maybe even the desert?"

Kukui smiled at Moon's curiosity. "Ghost-types just love the stereotypical creepy places." He responded. "No one really knows the why, it's just a quirk of theirs. In theory they can survive in any environment, it's just that they like the creepy places. Or maybe ghost types in general just enjoy quiet environments with no humans or other Pokémon around."

"Hmm…" The girl contemplated about the information she had been given.

The road took a slow u-turn at that point and a cliff began to form on the right side of the road. From this point the two humans had a good, if not perfect view of the sea in the distance. Moon could even see the reflections of the moon and the stars on the water surface.

"Hey, hey! I can see your house from here." Kukui pointed towards the one slightly illuminated spot downhill. Sure enough, there it was. Their new home. The lights were still on, meaning Delaila was still busy unpacking all of those boxes.

"Yeah, I guess." She couldn't see what the big deal was and decided to just go on. The Professor followed her swiftly, laughing.

"Looks like someone can't wait to get their hands on a new Pokémon. Oh! Hey there Jeanne!"

Kukui waved towards a girl in the distance, who appeared to be looking for something. The girl in question turned around and waved back. She approached the professor and the girl and said: "Hey prof. What's up? New trainer?" Jeanne nodded towards Moon, who simply nodded back.

"Yup! That's Moon! She's about to get her first Pokémon from the Kahuna. Whatcha doing here?"

Jeanne sighed. "Trying to catch a Pokémon, emphasize on trying." She shook her head. "Pikachu and I have been looking for the past hour, yet for some reason not even a single Rattata bothered showing up. Hey Pikachu!" The girl turned around and shouted at a tree in the distance. "Found anything?!"

A Pikachu jumped on one of the lower branches and shook his head. "Pika!" It shouted back then. It was about to jump down from the tree, when it stopped dead in its tracks and stiffened up. The three humans watched with various degrees of interest, as the Pikachu did a quick 180, jumped down the tree and ran into the bushes.

"She must have found something!" Jeanne exclaimed. "Gotta jet! See ya!" Jeanne waved with one arm, as she ran after her Pikachu.

"Haha, reminds when I tried to catch my first Pokémon. Man it took me a whole day to finally catch one."

"What was it?" Moon asked with interest.

"A Cartapie!" Kukui proclaimed proudly.

"...Really?"

XXX

"Go Rockruff!"

"Dodge Yungoos!"

Only a couple of steps away from the entrance to Iki Town, two trainers were duking it out with their respective Pokémon. Luckily the Pokémon and Trainers appeared to be too distracted with their battle to notice the new arrivals. The Professor grinned, putting his hands on his hips.

"Soon enough, you're going to face other trainers as well. Wanna stay and watch?"

To Kukui's disappointment, Moon shook her head. "No, I can already see the outcome. Unless Yungoos knows a ground type attack, it's gonna lose due to the type disadvantage. Of course if it were overall stronger than Rockruff, things could be different, but judging alone from the size alone, it looks smaller than other Yungoos I've seen on the internet."

"Well yeah, you're right with your assumptions, but that still doesn't mean that Rockruff is guaranteed to win. There's more to a Pokémon battle than just strength, types and attack moves. But you'll learn that on your journey."

"We'll see." was Moon's simple reply.

As the battle went on, the two humans finally arrived in Iki Town. It had to be the smallest village Moon had ever seen and the greenest too! Seriously, there was more grass than there was a road, not to mention the complete lack of street lamp posts! The place was illuminated by the stars, the moon and whatever light came out of the houses, if the people inside were still awake.

"Dude, this place is deserted." Moon commented, as she walked up some makeshift stairs with the Professor, who had to laugh at that.

"Nothing like Kanto, eh?" Kukui chuckled.

The two arrived at some kind of Plaza, if you could call a giant patch of grass a plaza, which had some kind of wooden plate in the middle. There were torches placed all around, but they weren't lit.

"Huh, that's weird." Kukui said with a frown. "The Kahuna was supposed to wait here for us. Maybe he's got caught up in something? Ah, whatever. I'll stay here and wait for him. Why don't you look around town a little?" the man suggested to the girl. "Maybe you'll even find the Kahuna."

"Uh huh. And what does he look like?"

"Like a Kahuna of course!" Kukui laughed.

Moon gave the adult a deadpan stare, after which she heeded his advice and went into a random direction: straight ahead.

There was a path, which led out of the small village and into a mountain pass. Totems had been placed on each side of the path, making Moon believe that this was some sort of religious place. She also noticed that there was someone walking up the path. Judging from the long blonde hair and the white dress, not to mention the huge hat, it had to be a girl. She was carrying a rather large backpack with her and wore shoes in the same color as her dress. These were all the characteristics Moon could gather about the girl, as she had her back turned to the redhead and disappeared behind a corner.

Moon concluded from this that it was apparently alright to visit whatever religious place was waiting at the end of the path and decided to follow. She also figured that the girl was probably a tourist, because she hadn't seen anyone in Alola as of yet who wore those kinds of clothes.

The path was pretty much straightforward with more decorative totems having been set up along the way. Moon's eyes allowed her to see every detail on the wooden decorations and she had to admit, they were well crafted and well preserved. Hopefully the people weren't as religiously nuts as the Protoss. THAT was the last thing she needed.

Eventually she could hear the sound of a river being nearby. Turning around another corner, Moon found the source of the noise in form of a cliff and a river streaming down below. There was a single bridge connecting the two sides of the cliff. For some reason there were a bunch of Pidgey circling above the bridge, as if they were stalking some prey. The girl from earlier was standing in front of the bridge and was trembling for some reason. Getting a little closer, Moon could finally see the main part of the bridge and discovered what was going on.

There was a small Pokémon in the middle of the bridge, trembling in fear. It looked like it was made out of dark blue/lilac clouds or something and was definitely in trouble. Those Pidgeys were looking for a midnight snack and if the trainer didn't get a move on soon, they would turn that cloud-like Pokémon into minced meat rather sooner than later.

"Hey!" Moon called out getting the attention of said trainer. The blonde girl turned around and revealed bright green eyes, along with a face that obviously hadn't seen too many hardships. Moon quickly ran up to the girl.

"What are you doing?! Recall your Pokémon, before those Pidgey decide to attack!"

"I...er umm…." The girl looked startled by Moon's sudden appearance and had trouble getting her words together. "That's… I mean… err…."

Moon was beginning to tap her foot impatiently and glanced over to the Pidgeys another time. "What? What's the holdup?!" she shouted.

"Ah!" The blonde flinched. "N-Nebby doesn't have a Pokéball." the girl said in an almost too quiet voice for Moon to hear.

"Say what?" Moon blinked, but shook herself out of her stupor. "Well how about you get a move on and grab your Pokémon, before it gets turned into lunch?!" the redhead gestured wildly with her arm at this Nebby Pokémon.

"B-b-b-because I-I-I-I'm t-t-t-too scared." The girl sobbed, causing Moon to sigh and give the blonde a deadpan expression.

"Are you fucking-?! Whatever." The redhead breathed out. Without saying another word, she ran over to the bridge, intending on getting the Pokémon out of there as soon as possible. However, she was forced to stop abruptly, because the entire bridge began to shake once her boot hit the third plank.

"WHOA!" Moon exclaimed, stabilizing herself on the railing. The Pokémon in the middle of the bridge squealed in fright as everything began to shake all of the sudden.

"Be careful! It looks like the bridge is unstable!" the blonde shouted at Moon.

"No shit, sherlock?!" Moon shouted back, getting already frustrated. She glared over to the other girl, which immediately shut her up and added a little wince. Feeling at least a tiny bit calmer, Moon carefully continued her way across the bridge and questioned her decision to help the further she got. The planks sounded like they would break every time she stepped on one and on multiple occasions the entire bridge shook once again.

"This girl so owes me for this." Moon growled to herself, being only an arm's length away from Nebby. Once she had crossed the distance, she gently picked up the small Pokémon, cradled it into her arms and prayed to Tassadar that the thing wouldn't have a panic attack, while she was on the bridge. A strange concept, a Zerg praying to a dead Protoss, but she decided that this was the best bet she had. A screech from above caused the redhead to look up. The Pidgeys were attacking!

"Get lost!" Moon shouted on top of her lungs. At first the bird Pokémon only looked down on her for a moment. The girl gave them her best death glare in that time, which showed its effects quite soon. The Pokémon looked like they were facing a Brutalisk instead of a little girl and high tailed out of the area as fast as their tiny wings could carry them. Once they were out of sight, Moon looked down at the blue/lilac Pokémon in her arms. It was still trembling and hugged itself as tightly as possible. Moon guessed that it was paralyzed with fear, which worked for her.

She began her way back to the blonde girl, but never managed to reach the end. The plank underneath her was too dilapidated to support her weight and gave in. The girl didn't even have the time to scream, as she began her free fall towards the river underneath her. Reacting on instinct, Moon grabbed the fluffy Pokémon with one hand (causing it to squeal in surprise and fear), channeled all of her strength into her right arm and threw the lightweight up the cliff. She never got to see whether her throw was successful or not for a moment later she hit the water beneath and was taken away by the currents.


	3. Chapter 3

Lillie ran back to town as fast as her legs could carry her. However with her rather huge bag swinging around and occasionally getting in the way of her legs, not to mention her hat would fly off if she didn't keep a hold of it the entire sprint, it took her considerably longer than it actually should have. Nevertheless, she managed to get back to Iki Town, where the Professor was supposed to be a new trainer. It was just too bad that for some reason the trainer had to receive his Pokémon at night of all times. The only reason she was capable of seeing even her hand in front of her face, was thanks to the lights coming out of the nearby houses. It still didn't stop her from stumbling over the wooden battle platform and landing on said platform pretty hard.

"Ahh! Umph!"

"Peeewww!" Through the impact, Nebby got thrown out of the bag and flew across the platform, bouncing on the wood a couple of times with her fluffy body, until she came to a standstill right in front of the feet of Professor Kukui.

Nebby, being understandably shaken up, felt like throwing up as soon as she was being picked up by the Professor. Luckily her stomach was empty at the moment, so all that came out was a tiny, adorable burp. She proceeded to lean back into the Professor's and waited for the world to stop spinning.

Lilly in the meantime managed to get back up on her feet, with only a minor bruise on her cheek. The Professor approached her with a sympathizing smile, while carefully carrying Nebby in his hands.

"Whoa there Lillie. You look like you got chased by a herd of Taurus. Where's the fire?" Kukui asked, stroking with two thumbs over Nebby's forehead.

"There...at the shrine…" It was then that Lillie noticed just how out of shape she was, as she needed time to catch her breath.

"Easy there, Lillie. Take your time." Kukui advised.

"There...there was a girl." Lillie finally managed to get out. "At the bridge." The blonde girl pointed at the path behind her. "A girl was on the bridge and the bridge collapsed! The girl fell into the river!"

"Say what?!" Kukui exclaimed, almost dropping the little psychic type in his hands to the ground. "A girl, did she have red hair?" Kukui asked, putting Nebby in his left hand while picking for one of his Pokéballs with the right one.

"Y-yes, she did. Do you know her?"

"No time to talk. We gotta help her fast. Pikipek!" Kukui threw the Pokéball into the air, which then released the flying type into the air. Being particular experienced for these kinds of situations, Pikipek began flapping her wings as soon as her body had fully materialized.

"Pikipek! A girl fell into the river near the shrine!" Kukui shouted upwards, causing the Pokémon to shriek in surprise. Having lived its entire life on this island, Pikipek knew just how fast the current of the river went, not to mention that most of it went through a miniature canyon, giving those that fell in virtually no chance of saving themselves on a riverbank. That is considering they didn't drown earlier or smashed their skulls against one of the rocks inside the river.

"Can you keep a lookout for her? I'll try to get some additional help in the meantime!"

Giving a confirming chirp, Pikipek flew as fast as her tiny wings allowed her towards the river and followed the stream downwards. Kukui in the meantime had left Lillie behind in a metaphorical cloud of dust, as he had spotted the Kahuna approaching the scene. Nebby had to endure a bit more shaking and felt like throwing up once again.

"Kahuna Hala!"

"Ah, Kukui. My, my what's the rush, my boy?" Kahuna Hala was an elderly man, who had a slight resemblance of a Judo fighter. His skin was brown, as it was with most people around this part of the world, his hair and mustache were already white and his face had a few wrinkles he and there. He wore a yellow Alolan shirt with white flower patterns, a blue shirt, used a white rope as a belt, which he used to strap on a fan, white shorts, and blue sandals.

"We got a problem, Kahuna. A girl fell into the river, at the shrine."

"What?!" The Kahuna exclaimed in shock.

"I just send Pikipek looking for her. But we gotta inform the police, have them send a chopper or something!"

"Right." The Kahuna nodded, catching himself rather quickly. "I'll organize search parties with the townsfolk."

XXX

Moon didn't know just how long she had been carried away by the current, only that various parts of her body got hit by the occasional rock, not to mention she got slammed against the walls a couple of times. A small part of her was glad that she wasn't wearing anything expensive, but most of her brain was occupied with the thought of getting some oxygen into her system.

With all of her limbs, she tried to push herself above the surface, with limited success. She managed to stay afloat for a second or two until she got dragged underwater once again by the currents. One time the entire front of her body slammed against a rock, causing her arms and legs to go limp since the air got pressed out of her body. She was pressed against the rock for a couple of seconds until her body slipped away and she got washed away further down the stream.

This went on for at least a couple of minutes until Moon could feel herself slowing down underwater. Not questioning her sudden luck, the redhead summoned her strength once again and pushed herself through the surface. After coughing and spluttering out some water, Moon finally managed to get an adequate amount of air into her lungs. Once her brain and other organs had been resupplied with oxygen, the girl took a look at her surroundings.

She was surprised to find a shore only about twenty meters in front of her. Turning her head to the side, she could see the actual river flowing through a canyon, a small one. Was that waterfall always there? She totally missed falling down that one.

Wiping her wet hair from her forehead, Moon swam back to Melemele Island. She was a little slow, thanks to her clothes, but made it nonetheless. Her feet sank into the sand, as soon they were capable of taking a hold on the ground. The redhead cursed silently when she felt the sand entering her shoes and sticking to her socks. Always an annoying feeling.

"Right." Moon breathed out, looking down on her soggy self. Her clothes thoroughly soaked and sticking to her skin, the same went for her hair and best of all: she just noticed she lost her little bag somewhere along the right. What a great evening.

"Note to self. Develop gills. And retractable fins. Not to mention some fucking wings, it's overtime by now." she growled.

Wringing out some of the water from her shirt, Moon took a look at her surroundings. Sadly, there wasn't any clue around the shore, which she could use to orientate around. Without her cell phone, she didn't have a map either. Thinking about it, her cell phone wouldn't have helped anyway, since it wasn't exactly waterproof.

"Mutations aside, where the hell am I?" The girl wondered aloud, considering her options. She couldn't follow the river back, that would require her to climb a ninety-degree wall. She was left with two options. Moon could either go along the shore and hoped she found a path, a hut or anything really along the way. Or she could make her way through the woods and see where they take her.

"Well, I've always wanted to explore a new planet on my own. Guess this is as close as it gets at the moment." Moon cracked her knuckles and stretched out her arms. A second later retractable blades appeared out of her arms, each making a loud snap-like sound. Each blade was almost as long as one of her arms. This was possible because technically it was two blades that were connected to each other in the middle, capable of folding together and retracting into her arm. It gave her melee attacks considerable reach. The blades themselves were not thicker than the ones Hydralisks commonly used, but at least one and a half times as wide. The space that was now empty within her arms didn't show any flesh, but violette colored carapace instead.

Reaching back, Moon swung her arm down, cutting each and every plant down right in front of her. "Ah, I don't get enough chances to use these." the girl said to herself, admiring her blades for a few moments, before she started to make her way into the forest, happily hacking the plants away as they came and creating a path as she did so.

As one might expect, the vegetation here in Alola proved to be vastly different from the one back in Kanto. There were a lot of palm trees around, for example, flowers that were shaped in weird ways and sometimes released weird fluids upon being cut down. Of them proved to be corrosive, as the yellow stuff put some tiny holes in her clothes. Seeing this, Moon stopped cutting things willy nilly and only did that, when it was necessary.

One time when she cut through an especially thick bush, she accidentally scared away a bunch of bug type Pokémon. They walked or in this case ran on all fours, had a white shell and orange faces. They were too quickly gone for Moon to get a better look on them, a shame since she likes to compare bug type Pokémon to Zerg Units. Shrugging to herself, Moon continued on her way trying to at least go in a straight line of some sorts. Of course, this wasn't always possible due to the landscape. When this was the case, she did her best to remember in which direction the shore laid, so that she wouldn't accidentally come out from where she started.

Without a watch, Moon didn't know how long the whole journey took her. Not much happened, really. From the looks of things, she came out in an uninhabited part of Melemele Island. Occasionally she would wake up the one or other Pokémon, most of which she didn't get a good look at, but other than that, the night was unusually silent.

After Moon had put quite a distance behind herself, she decided to take a little rest on a tree stump. No, she didn't cut the tree down, the stump just happened to be around. There were already a bunch of mushrooms growing on the dead wood. The redhead took off her shoes and socks and tried to get rid of the sand on her socks. She swung the clothing through the air, slapped it against the tree trunk, however, nothing really worked, mostly because the clothing was still thoroughly soaked. The sand just stuck to it.

Sighing in annoyance, Moon just threw the two pieces of clothing away and instead rubbed the sand off her feet. She wondered if the others were already searching for her…

XXX

Bridge of the Hyperion, Seven Years Ago

Jim Raynor pinched the bridge of his nose, after reading the latest report. A war was always devastating no matter how big or small it was. Friends and family were lost, homes destroyed and life became hell itself. Sadly war had also the habit of bringing the worst of humanity, which was shown in the case of the Kel'Morians deciding to start a war against the dominion, despite the thread Amon and his Hybrids were to the entire universe.

"Three systems were lost." Matt Horner reported to his commander. "Only one of them housing critical military compartments. The planets in the other two planets, however, were used as farm worlds, responsible for supplying mostly outer worlds, but some of the inner ones as well."

"Great. As if we weren't short enough in supplies already." Raynor grumbled. "I can get it when someone wants to cash in when he sees the opportunity. I don't like it, but I get it. What I don't get is how those bastards fail to see the situation the entire sector is currently facing?!" Raynor slammed his fist on the holo-table, causing the hologram to shake and distort for a moment.

"I don't know sir." Matt shook his head, opening a holographic screen in front of himself. "The problem is, our forces are already stretched thin as it is. Kerrigan has disengaged at least half of her broods from the front lines, because of the heavy casualties. They're currently rebuilding herself, but she said it would take some time for them to be combat effective again. The Protoss are facing their own problems in their part of the sector, so we cannot expect any help from them. If the Kel'Morians really plan to launch a full-scale invasion, then there won't be anything the Dominion can do to protect the outer worlds."

"They think this is just a fluke," Raynor growled. "That this war will be over in a year, maybe five and by then they'll have secured whatever they conquered. Idiots!" Once again Raynor slammed his fist against the table, causing the hologram to distort one more time. Matt was about to tell his commander to keep a level head when he heard a sudden clunk-sound coming from under the table. Raynor heard it as well.

"Err, whoops?"

Matt sighed, shaking his head. "Let's hope you didn't break anything essential." The Captain said as he bent down, intending on opening a little hatch and inspecting the inside. However, when he tried to undo the latches, he noticed something suspicious.

"Strange, it's already open," Matt commented, moving the hatch aside. As soon as he was finished he found the reason.

"Ah. Sir? Did you plan on playing hide and seek with your daughter by any chance?"

Because underneath the table was sitting none other than Moon, who was clutching her head in pain.

XXX

"EEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Huh, what?" Moon was brought out of the memory lane when she heard a very loud scream. Jumping on her feet, the redhead looked around, trying to pinpoint the origin of the scream. It sounded like someone or something was in distress.

"What was that?" Moon wondered aloud, keeping her blades at the ready. For a few minutes, the forest remained silent, the only exception being the wind occasionally blowing through the trees. Until…

"EEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Gotcha!" Moon exclaimed and ran into the direction she heard the scream coming from, completely forgetting her shoes and socks in the process. With her blades at the ready, she quickly made her way through the bushes, avoiding branches ready to hit her face and ignoring the rocks picking on her feet. She just hacked and slash herself a way through the forest, disturbing the one or other's Pokémon sleep. A particular Murkrow wasn't too happy with this treatment and tried to pick on the redhead's head, only to get swiped away with the back of her blades. By the way, the backside was sharp as well.

Moon came to a sudden halt when the wind decided to blow in her direction, allowing an all too familiar scent to enter her nose.

"Blood." She whispered. No doubt about it, that was blood. She had smelled that particular substance more than enough throughout her entire life to even recognize the faintest scent of it. Like a bloodhound or Houndoom in the planet's case (sometimes it got confusing), the Zerg-Human-Hybrid used her superior senses in order to track down the source of it. The further she went, the lighter the woods became, so light in fact that she could retract the blades back into her arms. Soon enough she found herself running on grass, the trees letting enough light through for the small plants to grow.

The scent of blood intensified each time her feet hit the ground. In fact, she was getting so close that she could tell that this particular blood did not belong to a human like she initially assumed. This particular scent wasn't registered in her biological database. It didn't fit any animal she'd met and certainly no Pokémon. Granted there were over 800 registered Pokémon in the Pokédex, so there was still a high chance of the blood belonging to a Pokémon. And this assumption proved to be the correct one.

The redhead skidded to a halt in front of a large tree, suddenly finding herself face to back to a huge Bug-Pokémon. If it wouldn't stand with its front leaning forward, it could easily look down on any human the Moon personally knew. The Pokémon in question had some gray chitin plating on its back, its upper body was way wider than the second half and some plates stuck out from the side of its back. Upon hearing Moon's arrival, the bug-type turned around, revealing its whole self. The head was by comparison very small. Two antennae grew out of the thing, being colored purple along with the face. It had two huge arms, the lower part being 200% thicker (from Moon's perspective), then the upper part and better armored. Two spikes grew out of each arm, possibly serving as makeshift hands. The Pokémon had four more arms, though these were very short and lacked hands. Abathur would have gotten rid of the useless limbs a long time ago.

For some reason or another, the mid section wasn't armored, revealing some pinkish skin. The plating around the genital area was formed like an old gladiator protection thingie (Moon didn't remember the name for that thing) and finally its legs were remarkably thin for being capable of holding up the entire body.

"Pod." The Pokémon simply said, looking at Moon with its dark eyes. There was no doubt the scent of the blood was the strongest in this area, however the Pokémon in front of her appeared to be uninjured. That was all the observation Moon could do as the Pokémon screamed loudly: "Go!" and made an intimidating gesture by raising its arms.

"Ah, shit." Moon cursed, taking on fighting stance herself. She put both legs parallel to each other, making sure both stood just at the right distance and bent her knees a little bit. Next, she stretched out her arms and once again released the blades once again.

The "Gopod" or whatever that thing was called, appeared to be taken aback by this, but only for a second, for made a click sound with its mouth before attacking Moon with its claws. It stretched out its claws and ran straight at the girl, all the while the claws began to shimmer a light blue.

Not taking any chances, Moon used her more agile body to jump out of the way, causing the bug type to run behind her. Before it could turn around, Moon had done so herself and slammed her blade right at the chitin plating of the Pokémon. The injury was only minimal if one could call it an injury, which surprised Moon, as she had cut down way tougher stuff than simple chitin plating the past. However, the girl had no time to contemplate, as the Pokémon had turned around and swung its claw in her direction. Dodging again, by jumping backward, the hybrid readied her swords, waiting for her opponent to attack. She didn't need to wait long.

"Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!"

The bug unleashed a series of swipes with its still blue glowing claws forcing Moon to continuously dodge in every kind of direction. She made small jumps to the left, right, left, ducked, jumped in order to dodge a really low blow, but then was caught off guard mid-air, with the Pokémon thrusting its claws forward.

"Ahhhh!" Moon scream more in surprise than in pain, as she flew through the air until she hit a tree with her back. A couple of oran berries dropped to the ground. One of them hit her head.

The Pokémon made a strange clicking sound and it took the human a second to realize that it was laughing at her.

"Oh, shut up, will ya?!" She shouted and threw one of the berries at the Pokémon. It caught the fruit with its mouth and devoured it in one fell swoop. It then proceeded to rub its belly and gave Moon a taunting smile.

"That's it! You're toast!" The girl shouted, jumping on her feet. With a battle cry, she quickly closed the distance between herself and the Pokémon and attacked the thing with her own series of slashes. Rather than dodging, the bug-type raised its arms, in order to protect the more vulnerable parts of its body. Her blades were still sharp enough to leave some marks and given enough time she would pierce for the carapace. But Moon did not have the patience for that. After swinging with both arms at once, she roll-jumped to the right, coming up right behind the big bug. As expected, it didn't have time to turn around fully and as such Moon managed to land a good hit on the back of the Pokémon, specifically on a small part where the carapace didn't cover the skin. Fluids began to flow down from the tip of her blades, but the bug-type didn't scream. It let out the bug equivalent of a growl.

Moon's blade sadly got stuck in the flesh and before she managed to get it out, the Pokémon took it out for her, by slamming the back of its arm against her body, sending her flying again. With a painful moan, the girl hit the tree with the side of her body, before hitting the ground with her stomach. She managed to pull herself back up, just in time to witness another incoming attack. She rolled to her left, which had the effect of the Pokémon hitting the tree, in which Moon had slammed into just a moment earlier.

"Pod?!" The Pokémon got its spine's stuck inside the tree. Moon got up, turned around and couldn't help but grin at her opponent's misfortune. She held out both arms, took a second to aim and swung with full force at the exposed skin on both sides of the Pokémon. This time the bug-type did scream in pain, letting out an indistinguishable sound. With the adrenaline now rushing through its body, it managed to free itself from the tree and slammed it's back against the human.

Moon gasped for air and hit the ground. More fluids, presumably its blood, flowed out of the Pokémon's body. However, it didn't appear to be giving up anytime soon. By the time Moon had managed to catch her breath, the Bug-type was hovering above her. It raised its arm, ready to pierce the girl's heart. But it was just a tad too slow, as the girl rolled out of the way before the attack hit her.

Getting back up, she swung both of her blades against the Pokémon. The Bug-type managed to block the strikes in time with its right arm and reached back with its left arm. Moon rolled backward, avoiding the left swing. She counterattacked with her right arm, but her blade got caught up between the two spines of the Pokémon's "hand". The bug type swung Moon's arm away and attacked the hybrid with its mother arm, landing another solid hit.

With a grunt, Moon staggered backward, catching herself by grabbing a low branch of a tree. As she took on her stance once again, the young girl could feel her own blood drenching her now thoroughly ruined shirt.

"Right. Playtime is over," she stated, her breathing getting a little heavier.

"Pod." The Pokémon raised its arms, the spines glowing blue again. It was about to approach the girl again, but then stopped, when it saw the girl's eyes glowing. Confused it stopped, tilting its head. This proved to be a fatal mistake.

Quicker than humanly possible, Moon raised her right arm, a ball of pure energy escaping her outstretched hand, which hit her opponent's neck. A huge chunk of carapace downright exploded away, exposing the skin underneath. The Pokémon screeched in pain, throwing it's upper body around. It slammed against some trees, causing berries, leaves, and branches to come down. Moon expected the Pokémon to collapse any second now, either from the shock of the pain or from blood loss. But then the unexpected happened.

The Pokémon ran. Not in "ran" ran, like running away, at least not in the normal sense. It ran so fast that Moon was almost not able to see it ran away with her advanced eyes. Not to mention the thing left a freaking dust trail, like in some sort of cartoon.

"What the heck?!" Moon exclaimed waving the dust away from her face. "How is this thing so fast?" she asked, forgetting for a moment that she was bleeding. "Agility? Maybe?" she wondered aloud, taking a look at herself. Yup, her clothes were completely ruined. Not only that, but she was full of scratches and bruises as well. Not to mention the two slightly deeper wounds the bug-type inflicted upon her. Luckily her accelerated healing had already kicked in and from what she could tell the bleeding had already stopped. Now she just needed to find a place to wash her clothes or else Delaila would lose her shit again.

Before Moon could go and find a river again, preferably one that wasn't located at the bottom of a canyon, she heard a rustling coming from one of the bushes behind her. Acting purely on instinct, she swung her arm around and swiftly removed the cover from the hiding Pokémon. That Pokémon turned out to be an Eevee. A very heavily injured Eevee at that!

One of Eevee's ears had lost half of one of its ears, multiple cuts, and bruises on its face, one cut running right through one of its eyes. Even worse were the holes that were put right in it's the main body! The fur was completely soaked in blood, some of which had dried up already. A good chunk of the Pokémon's tail was missing as well.

"Holy shit. What in the name of Amon's asshole happened to you?" Moon asked. The Eevee in return just let out a whimper and dropped to the ground. It appeared to be too weak to even be properly afraid anymore. Moon also now realized where the blood smell originated from. She wasn't sure what the normal-type did to piss off the Bug-type, but that was hardly relevant right now.

Moon knelt down right next to the normal Pokémon, putting a hand on its head. The Eevee shuddered and let out a tiny whine, but else didn't do much. It didn't take someone with a PhD to realize that this Pokémon was doomed to die. Death was nothing new to Moon. She had seen countless Zerg units die in a single battle, which was pretty much their purpose anyway. It was, like Artanis once said, every warrior's purpose to die on the battlefield. So she pretty much didn't get it, when people lost their Pokémon either due to an accident during a battle or due to old age. It just happened. Sure keeping your Pokémon alive saved a lot of resources and training time, but there was still no reason to be crying, right? It's not like they were family or something.

"Do you have a family?" Moon asked the Eevee, not expecting an answer. She already knew it anyway. Being psionic, allowed her to get into the heads of people, animals and Pokémon alike. It's just that she didn't do it very often, as her parents had practically indoctrinated it into her not to do it unless it was absolutely necessary or her mom and/or dad.

What she got from the Eevee's head wasn't much, to begin with. Its brain activity was at a low point and the last thoughts were dedicated towards its parents, which were still alive, but on one of the other islands. The rest of the pictures Moon saw were muddy at best. She saw a ship, some random silhouettes of Pokémon, but that was it. The thing barely even registered that Moon was touching it.

"A mom and a dad, huh? Do you miss them? I'm sure you do. I miss my parents too." Moon retracted her hand and then noticed that she still had the blades outside. With a loud snapping sound, they retracted back into her arm.

"You know, my dad used to complain about the government." Moon continued talking, despite the Eevee getting weaker by the second. "He especially liked to rant about the time mom invaded the entire sector and the Dominion did nothing to help the invaded worlds." Moon shook her head. "Why they don't just become part of the swarm is beyond me. Stupid Terrans."

Moon put both of her hands in front of her mouth and began to choke. This continued for a couple of seconds until she threw up a greenish-yellow substance and caught it in her hands. It was sticky like glue, some of it dropping on the normal-type below. Carefully Moon lowered her hands until she could feel the tips of Eevee's fur with the back of them.

"Anyways, I'm getting off topic." She carefully let the substance flow down on the Pokémon. "The point my father was trying to make was-"

She gently, yet swiftly spread the glue-like liquid all over Eevee's body.

"-is that if you can help someone in need then you goddamn help them. "Because else, you're not better than that son of a bitch, Arcturus."" Moon quoted her father. "You're lucky my mom ordered Abathur to give me the same healing enzymes that our Brood Mothers and Swarm Queens are using. Because even if I knew where the nearest Pokémon Center was, you'd be dead, before I got you there."

The Eevee was now completely engrossed by the healing enzymes. She, Moon finally got a gender through her mind connection, didn't even put up any resistance. In face the Eevee was very close to losing consciousness and not Moon's healing enzymes would be able to stop it. The girl, however, had confidence that they would be able to save the Pokémon like they did with so many Zerg, hence the lack of worry from her part.

After she made sure the Eevee was put in a makeshift liquid cocoon, being careful to make sure she can breathe and not kill it through suffocation like that Ultralisk, all Moon could do was sit down and wait. She retracted her mind from the now unconscious Eevee and intended on relaxing for a while until the treatment was complete at least, however it never came to that. Why? Because there was another rustling coming from the bushes right in front of her.

Moon jumped on her feet once again, wincing a little, as the wounds from the previous battle were still healing. She released her blades from her arms and got into battle stance. Any Pokémon that was brave enough not to run away from her was either her Meowth from home or a really tough wild Pokémon. Expecting the worst, Moon was ready to throw out another kinetic blast. However, her preparations not only proved to be unnecessary, but downright detrimental to her very existence. For out of the bushes jumped none other than the cloud-like Pokémon.

"Pew!" It shouted looked around for a little until it's gaze fell on Moon, who was a little bit too stunned to react properly.

"PEW!" The thing shouted, a big, goofy smile appearing all over its face. Moon lowered her arms but didn't retract her swords.

"Uh… hi?" she tried, waving her hand.

"Pew! Pew!" The Pokémon shouted back and started dancing around Moon. The girl couldn't help but smile at the little display. She relaxed her stance as a response.

"Huh… you're… not afraid?" Moon asked, still looking down on the Pokémon. The fluffy thing stopped right in front her.

"Pew?" The Pokémon appeared to be confused.

"Nebby!" A new voice shouted, causing Moon and the Pokémon to look around. "Nebby, where are you?!" The voice sounded distressed.

"Wait, where have I heard…? Is she your trainer?"

"Pew!"

"Nebby!" There was a very short rustling in the bushes and out of them came the blonde girl, Moon had met earlier this day!

"Nebby!" The girl put her hands on her hips, looking down angrily at her Pokémon. "I told you not to run away! We're supposed to help the others find the-! Oh! You found… her…" The blonde girl trailed off, as soon as her gaze fell on the redhead. Moon followed the girl's gaze towards her own arms. She still had yet to retract her blades.

"Well...this…" she retracted her blades before anyone else appeared out of nowhere. "This… could be worse I suppose." She finished slowly, keeping a cool cover on the outside, while at the same time panicking on the inside. The blonde girl in the meantime had snatched up "Nebby" and took a few slow steps backward.

"W-w-what was that?! Oh my- What's this?!" The girl exclaimed, pointing at the Eevee covered in healing enzymes.

"Er…" Moon had no idea what she should say or how she should react at this point. A variety of scenarios went through her head, one with a worse outcome than the other. And is if some higher up being had heard her previous statement, it just decided to make her situation more complicated.

As Moon was about to say… something, she wasn't really sure anymore what she wanted to say, but whatever it was, it got stuck in her throat as soon as a bright, white light illuminated the entire area.

Moon, Nebby and the girl looked over to the Eevee and immediately covered their eyes with their arms or whatever Nebby had, in order to shield them from the light.

"What's happening?!" The blond exclaimed, her panic level rising.

"It's...evolving!?" The redhead exclaimed in realization, having seen several videos of Pokémon evolving.

"Peeewwww! Pew, pew, pew!"

Truth to be told the entire evolution process was over in a couple of seconds. Still, it was quite fascinating for all attendees to watch the Eevee growing bigger, ever so slightly changing its basic shape and even growing additional...somethings. It wasn't quite clear until the light disappeared and when it did, Moon felt a sudden sense of dread overcoming her.

"Mom is going to kill me when she finds out about this."

"Zeveon!"


	4. Chapter 4

Moon stared at the new evolution of the Eevee-Family. It looked… naturally for a Pokémon infested with the Zerg Virus. Certainly better than the tentacle mess that an infested Terran was.

The Eevee or rather the Zeveon had lost all of it's fur. In it's stead, it was covered by a light carapace plating. There were a bunch of little spines growing out of the legs and no less than three claws had grown out of its paws. On it's neck, the Zeveon had three small sacks made of hardened, see-through carapace, giving a good view to a strange accid-green liquid. Moon guessed this was either the same acid as the Banelings used or poison. The ears of Zeveon were a little smaller and fleshy, with three tiny spikes sticking out from the top. It's mouth was a little bigger and sported multiple rows of very sharp teeth. Additionally it had two mandibles coming out from the side of the mouth, similar to the ones Zerglings had. Zeveon also sported two additional, smaller eyes, sported on top of the original ones. No pupils were visible anymore. They glowed in a green-yellow color, similar to how the bug-type in general was associated. It's tail or rather two tails were now fleshy things with tiny spikes around them and a bigger stinger at each tip. Overall the color design of the carapace was a greenish-yellow as well, again just like humans nowadays associated the bug-type.

The color was rather surprising to Moon. Different Zerg broods were designated specific colors, in order to differentiate between them rather easily. Since Moon did not have a brood as of yet, her associated color was purple, that of her mother's. There just weren't many indications of that color on her own body. As a result of that and since the virus had come out of her own body, she fully expected anything she accidentally infested to have her color. But for some reason, the Zeveon was not purple colored. Was it a shiny by any chance?

Moon was brought out of her musings, when the Zevion approached her. The new Pokémon was looking at her with a curious gaze, inspecting her from top to bottom. It then proceeded to rub it's head gently against the redhead's leg. Said redhead almost took a step back, but managed to control herself. Instead of going away, Moon kneeled down and tentatively put her hand on the Pokémon's back. The hybrid noted that it didn't feel any different than the back of a Drone.

"Zee." The Zeveon said in approval, continuing to rub it's head against the leg. A small smile appeared on Moon's face, as she really enjoyed petting the Pokémon. "Mom is so going to kill me, when she sees you." Moon mumbled to herself, just loud enough for the Zeveon to hear. It looked up to the girl, tilting it's head in confusion at the sentence. It also noticed the second human girl, the blonde one, who was holding a dark, blue, fluffy Pokémon in her hands.

Moon followed the new Pokémon's gaze up to the blonde girl, who appeared to be still in shock, but at least was still ways away from panic mode. The human-zerg hybrid thought that this was as good of a time as any to start a conversation, when out of nowhere her vision began to blur. Zeveon barely managed to jump out of the way, before Moon slumped over, falling onto her hands.

"What the heck?" Moon breathed out.

"Pew!" Nebby shouted in concern.

At the same time, the blonde girl gasped and kneeled down right next to the redhead. "Are you alright?!" she asked, panic now clearly present in her voice. "Oh my gosh! You're injured!" The girl shouted, now thoroughly panicking. It was at this time that Moon was reminded that humans could not see very good in the dark. "You're bleeding!"

"Peeewww! Pew! Pew! Pew!"

Moon raised her head and found both Pokémon and the human girl looking at her with concern. Her vision was getting a little better, but for some reason Moon felt really weak. Then her brain actually processed the words that had been spoken by the yet to be named blonde.

("Blood? I am bleeding?") The redhead thought to herself. ("But that doesn't make any sense. My superior healing factor should have already stopped the bleeding.")

"We need to get you to a hospital!"

"No…" Moon protested rather weakly. Clearing her throat, she continued. "These are just… superficial wounds. Nothing to be worried about." The hybrid tried to get up, but was abruptly stopped by the girl, who put a hand on Moon's back, gently pushing her down.

"These are not superficial wounds, they're grave injuries! It's a miracle you're still alive!" the blonde scolded, to which the redhead couldn't help but snort.

"You're overreacting. I just haven't eaten in hours and given that I have been walking for hours…"

Moon wanted to slap herself over the face. ("That's it! I haven't had a decent meal ever since breakfast! I only ate sporadically, since we were so busy unpacking and afterwards I went to sleep. My body has simply run out of building material to repair the damage it sustained!")

As if having read her thoughts, Zeveon walked over to one of the fallen oran berries, picked it up with it's mouth and brought it back to Moon. The girl smiled once again and accepted the gift with an outstretched hand. Zeveon gently dropped the berry into Moon's palm, allowing the girl to take a bite out of the fruit. The sweet taste of the blue berry almost overwhelmed Moon's tongue. This had to be the tastiest berry she had ever eaten in her life. An unintentional moan escaped her mouth, her face leaving no doubt that she was experiencing pure ecstasy right now.

"Zee." The Zeveon smiled and bowed her head gently. While Moon continued eating the fruit, she could feel two gentle hands touching her shoulder.

"Do you think you can stand?" the blonde asked with a worried tone.

"Weren't you afraid of me just two minutes ago?" Moon asked amused, taking another bite out of the berry.

"I-I...I...do have questions." the girl eventually caught herself. "B-but you're hurt. We need to get you to a hospital."

"...Fine." Moon sighed after a moment, realizing that this was the best possible outcome. Swallowing the rest of the oran berry. Carefully the redhead got on her feet and pushed her body upwards, all the while the blonde had her hands around Moon, ready to catch the girl, should she collapse again. But Moon managed to get fully up without any trouble and even stretched her arms a little, before letting them fall.

"Phew. Much better already." she commented with a hint of surprise in her voice.

"I read that oran berries were used for creating medicine in the old days." The blonde stated. "Maybe they somehow made you feel better." She suggested.

"Maybe." Moon shrugged. She pulled on her thoroughly ruined shirt and went with one finger over the wounds she received from the bug-type earlier.

"I-I don't think you should do this." the blonde protested, but Moon ignored her and continued to gently go over the various scratches, cuts and whatever else her chest area had endured that day.

"Most of it stopped bleeding." She noted absentmindedly. "Most of it. Need to be careful not to reopen some of them. And Adun be damned, I need a shower. Seriously."

The blonde could only shake her head. "I-I think a shower should be the least of your worries."

"Pew!" Nebby shouted in agreement. The blonde girl abruptly turned towards the small Pokémon. "And you little miss, get back into the back. You know it's dangerous to go out on your own, especially at night." she chided her Pokémon.

"Pew…" Nebby held her head down in shame and jumped into the bag the girl was holding. After making sure the little Pokémon was comfortable, she turned back to Moon.

"Are you sure you should stand like this?" The blonde asked concerned. "Maybe you should sit down, while I call for an ambulance."

"I'll be fine." Moon replied, adjusting her shirt to the best of her abilities. "I just need to make sure not to strain myself too much or else the wounds that already closed are gonna reopen."

"Ah!" The blonde girl gasped and quickly walked up to the redhead. "In that case you shouldn't move at all! I have a cell phone with me, so I should be able to call for help."

Moon crossed her arms in annoyance, but let the girl rummage through her bag. She honestly couldn't come up with a good counter argument at this point. Besides, the current state of her body, kept the blond girl distracted from herself and the Zerg-like Pokémon. Speaking of which, Moon looked down at the new Eevee evolution strain, who in return was busy sniffing at Moon's feet for some reason. Smiling, the human-zerg hybrid bend down and gently picked up the assumed bug-type. The Pokémon let out a surprised "Zee!", but else she didn't struggle in the hybrid's arms.

"Now what do I do with you?" Moon mused to the Pokémon. "I can't just let you wander around on your own. Who knows how many Pokémon you accidentally infest on your own?"

"Zeveon?" The Pokémon tilted its head in confusion.

"Pew!"

"Ah, I'm sorry Nebby!"

Zeveon and Moon looked over to the blonde for a moment, who had accidentally hit her Pokémon with something inside the bag. Moon chuckled and returned her attention to the Pokémon in her arms.

"The obvious thing to do is to take you with me."

"Zee, Zeveon." The Pokémon gently rubbed her head against Moon's arm, while her tails wrapped themselves around the other. The spikes on the tails scratched Moon's skin a little bit, but else they didn't do much else.

"Not sure whether to take this as a yes or a no." Moon admitted, adjusting her arms a little bit.

"I found it!" The blond girl announced, taking out a rather old looking cell phone.

"Wow. Talk about retro." Moon commented.

"I...uh… lost my other phone." The blonde admitted with a blush. "The Professor was so nice to lend me his old one, until I get myself a new one." After explaining herself, the girl pressed a button, in order to get the device out of sleep mode. She began typing in a number, but very soon halted, much to the confusion of the redhead.

"Something wrong?" Moon asked.

"I… I don't have any service." The blonde said after a second.

"Really? Are we that far out in the dumps?" Moon asked looking around.

"Actually, we are not too far away from the road." The girl pointed in the direction she came from earlier. "I passed a house earlier, around twenty minutes earlier. Maybe we can ask for help from the owners. If someone is there, that is." The girl added with worry in her voice.

"I guess we might as well try it." Moon shrugged, putting the Zeveon down.

"Zee." The Pokémon complained, putting one of his paws on Moon's leg. The girl looked down at the Pokémon, which looked back at her with pleading eyes. Moon rolled her own and picked the Zeveon back.

"Fine, you win. But don't think I'll carry you every time."

"Zee!" Zeveon booped Moon's nose with her paw and then made it herself comfortable in the girl's arms. Moon involuntarily had to scratch her nose.

"I have never seen a Pokémon like this." The blonde girl commented, taking a closer look at Zeveon. "It was covered in that… yellow stuff, wasn't it?"

"The Eevee had been attacked by a bug Pokémon." Moon explained. "The yellow stuff must have been some kind of attack. I managed to scare the bug-type off." The hybrid decided not to tell the whole truth to the human, as Moon wasn't even sure whether it was a good idea or not to let the girl live.

"Wow. You're very brave." The blonde complimented. "That reminds me. I never thanked you for saving Nebby."

"Pew!" came it out of the bag. "Hihi, Nebby is very grateful as well." she giggled.

"Brave? First time I have been called that." Moon chuckled. "By the way, I never caught your name."

"Oh right! I'm sorry, I completely forgot to introduce myself. I am Lillie. And the Pokémon in my bag is Nebby."

"Pew!"

"My name's Scarlett Moon Raynor. Most people just call me Moon."

"You have a middle name?" Lillie asked. "I think it is a nice one."

"I'm still wondering why my parents named me after a big shiny rock in the sky." Lillie had to giggle at the comment. "But it's still better than being named after a color, I guess. So, shall we get going?"

"Yes, of course!" Lillie nodded with a determined look on her face. "We need to get you to a hospital or Pokémon Center as quickly as possible."

"Whatever you say…" Moon waved off and followed Lillie out of the bushes. In a matter of thirty seconds, the two girls found themselves on a dirt path. Considering that there were no branches blocking the night sky anymore, the entire area was fairly well illuminated by the stars and the moon. Even a human would be capable of seeing relatively good, as long as the sky remained clear.

"We need to go uphill from here." Lillie explained. "Hopefully they have a first aid kit for you."

Moon just shrugged and went on, making sure the Zeveon was comfortable in her arms. Lillie quickly catched up and walked right next to the hybrid, wanting to keep a close eye on the injured girl, in case she collapsed again. Said hybrid in the meantime kept her eyes on the road and the surrounding area, half-expecting the bug-type to show up again. But after five minutes of walking and no Pokémon showing up, she relaxed just a little bit. You never knew when some other random Pokémon showed up from the bushes and attacked. And given that the weaker Pokémon are usually too scared to show up, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to relax at all.

Moon also noted that the path wasn't as good of taken care off, as the one that led from her house to Iki Town. The road was uneven, at times grass was growing over the middle part and given her lack of footwear, the rocks made walking a rather uncomfortable experience. Not to mention the branches and random plants that grew spiky bits for one reason or the other.

After walking in the dark for a while, Lillie spoke up in worry: "Um...are you feeling alright? Should we maybe take a break?"

Moon stopped in her tracks and looked at the blonde. "I'm fine, really. Don't worry. Delaila will worry more than enough about me, once I get home."

"I… I see." Lillie replied uneasy. "Um… I wanted to ask you about… those things you had on your arms." The girl blushed and looked away after stating the question. Moon sighed and looked down on the Zeveon.

"I honestly hoped you forgot about those." She turned her gaze back to Lillie and said: "Look, can you please not tell anyone that I have those? I get it that you have questions, but I'd like to get myself cleaned up at least. Not to mention something to eat would be nice too."

"Oh, oh! I see…" Lillie looked down on her feet.

"I'll tell you about this stuff tomorrow. Or whenever they're going to let me out of the hospital."

"Okay. If you say so."

Moon nodded in approval and continued following the path. Lillie followed her shortly, her curiosity being numbed at the moment by the worry she felt for the redhead.

XXX

All in all, the walk was pretty much uneventful. Moon and Lillie remained silent most of the time, with only Zeveon making the occasional noise, when she spotted something that she found interesting.

At one point the bug-type even jumped off from Moon's arms and ran straight into a bush. Before any of the two girls could shout out to the Pokémon, a wild Spearow flew out of the bush and into the night sky.

"Zeveon! Zee, zee, zee!" Zeveon jumped back out of the bushes and ran after the flying-type for a couple of meters, until she realized that she wouldn't be able to catch it and stopped.

"Hehe, seems like somebody here is a little restless." Moon commented, as she and Lillie walked up to the Zeveon.

"Zee…" The Pokémon said disappointed and trotted back to the human and the hybrid.

"Umm… you shouldn't run off like this." Lillie spoke a little uneasy. "It is dangerous out there, you know."

"Zee." The Pokémon responded, looking up to the blonde girl. The bug-type didn't appear to be too impressed with the statement.

"Gotta agree with Lillie on this one." Moon stated, getting the attention of the Eevee evolution. "Evolution or not, you still got seriously injured earlier. I doubt you're in any condition to fight at the moment."

"Zee…" This time the Zeveon looked to the ground, realizing that the hybrid was right. "Besides, that Pokémon was a flying-type and last time I checked you bug-types are pretty weak to flying-types."

"Zee, zee! Zeveon, Zeveon!" The Pokémon shouted aggressively and let out a hiss. Lillie involuntarily took a step back, while Moon could only chuckle. The alien bend down to her knees and petted the Pokémon on her head.

"Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure, you're a tough one. I getcha."

"Ze!" The Zeveon harrumphed and held her nose high.

Moon smiled and rose up from the ground and looked over to Lillie. "Is it still far away?"

Lillie looked around for a while, trying to find any landmarks for indication, but was unsuccessful. "I'm not sure… but it shouldn't be too far. We have been going for a while."

"Good." Moon nodded in approval. "It's becoming really annoying to wear these icky clothes. At least I completely stopped bleeding by now."

Lillie shook her head. "I'm not sure whether to be disturbed or to find it amazing that you can just keep going like this, despite everything you have been through."

"Eh, I got some good genes."

That statement wasn't exactly untrue, given her heritage.

Lillie's prediction turned out to be right. After just five more minutes of walking, Zeveon no longer demanded to be carried by Moon, the small party made it to the house. As it turned out, this wasn't just any house with some random people living inside. This house turned out to be the very same building in which Moon and Delaila moved into not too long ago.

"This is it." Lillie proclaimed, the group stopping just a few meters away.

"Talk about coincidence. That's my home."

"Really? That's great!" Lillie smiled, looking over to Moon. "Oh, but, the lights are out. Aren't your parents at home?"

"Hmm…" Moon put a hand under her chin, thinking. "Nah. You said there were people out there, looking out for me, correct?"

Lillie nodded.

"That's that then. Delaila must have gone out to try and look for me herself. She probably took Meowth with her as well."

Moon walked up to the house, with Lillie and Zeveon following her. The redhead tried out the door, but was unsuccessful in opening it.

"Oh, that is unfortunate." Lillie commented.

"Don't worry." Moon waved off. "I know how to pick locks."

"You- AHHH!"

Lillie let out a high pitched scream, when Moon simply kicked the door open. Or to be much more precise, she kicked the door right out of it's frame, causing it to land on the ground in front of her.

"There we go. Door open." Moon proclaimed.

"Th-th-that's not how you pick locks!" Lillie screamed, standing in cowering position a few feet away from where the door used to be.

"It's how I pick locks." Moon called from inside, barely able to contain her laughter. "Do you know how hard it was to learn this? I used to kick my leg a hole in the door! Putting just the right amount of pressure on the door so it doesn't break is not easy, you know!"

Lillie wasn't sure what or if she should answer that remark in any particular fashion. Instead she opted to follow the redhead inside, halting for a second, when she found the door lying on the ground. She carefully stepped over it not wanting to damage it any further than it already was.

As the blonde looked around, she found that there were lots and lots of boxes placed everywhere around the living area. Only a few of them had even been opened and there were some random things placed on the table, in the corners and on the shelves. It really were random things from dolls to a water heater, everything was present.

The sound of a door opening caught Lillie's attention and she saw Moon coming out of the bathroom. To her surprise, she found that Moon had stripped down to her underwear, revealing all the cuts and bruises she had accumulated. The girl carried a first aid kit in her arms and she needed to be careful about her steps, because Zeveon was following her on every step. The Pokémon appeared to be curious about the first aid kit that Moon was carrying.

"Hey, careful Zeveon, this is nothing to eat." Moon chided, placing the kit on a table. The redhead quickly walked over to a cabinet, opened it and took out a bowl as well as some Pokémon food. She quickly filled the bowl and placed it on the ground.

"There you go." Moon told the Zeveon, who looked at the bowl in confusion. It circled the bowl a little bit, sniffed at the food for about thirty seconds and then took a tentative bite out of the pile of food.

"Zee! Zeveon!" The bug-type shouted in glee and began to properly chow down the food. Seeing as the Pokémon was taken care off, Moon turned her attention to Lillie, who had been staring at Moon's body in complete and utter horror the entire time. The sheer amount of blood that was sticking on Moon's skin, appeared to have put Lillie in a state of shock.

"Are you okay?" Moon asked, walking around the table.

"Am I okay? ARE YOU OKAY?!" Lillie shouted at full volume, surprising Moon, Zeveon and Nebby.

"PEW!" The cloud-like Pokémon jumped out of the bag, scared about the sudden shout of her caretaker. The tiny Pokémon looked around in shock, until her gaze fell on Moon.

"Pew! Pew, pew, pew!" she shouted and floated over to Moon. The redhead watched in slight amusement as the panicking Pokémon shouted things at Moon, which she of course didn't understand. After she was done with her rant, her gaze fell on the first aid kit. Recognizing the red cross symbol on top of it, Nebby repeatedly banged her head against the thing.

Lillie quickly stopped Nebby, before the Pokémon could seriously injure herself and opened up the first aid kit herself. In a routine fashion, Lillie took out everything she would need to help the injured girl in front of her.

"Okay, this is a well fit first aid kid, I think I have everything I need."

"Uh, you know I can do that myself." Moon stated, but was taken by surprise, when the blonde girl yanked her up. "I can't see where the wounds are. I'm afraid we need to get you cleaned up first. This is the bathroom, correct?"

"Whoa, hey!" Moon easily broke free from Lillie's grip. "What's up with you all of the sudden? I can easily take care of this myself. My dad serves in the military, he taught me how to do this kinda stuff."

"I don't care what your dad taught you and I don't care what kind of willpower you have to just shrug off injuries like these!" Lillie pointed at Moon's half-naked body, specifically her chest, where a lot of blood had accumulated.

"It's worse than it looks, trust me. Most of them are superficial wounds, really." Moon's carefree tone appeared to be really getting on Lillie's nerves. The blonde grabbed the redhead's arm once again and dragged her into the bathroom. Said redhead just let the houseguest do as she pleased, as the Zerg-Terran hybrid was curious where all of this would lead to. Nebby followed the two, while Zeveon was busy enjoying the factory made Pokémon food.

Inside the bathroom, Lillie motioned for Moon to go into the bathtub. The hybrid complied with a small smile on her face and set down. Nebby hovered next to Lillie in the air, as the Pokémon watched her caretaker take the showerhead and letting the water flow. After making sure the water had just the right temperature, Lillie began washing off the blood, dirt and sweat off the girl. Lillie was careful with that, as she didn't want to accidentally hurt the girl in the bathtub by touching one of the injuries. Moon found this first part of the procedure rather pleasant, especially when Lillie carefully went with her hand through Moon's red hair. It reminded Moon of the times her mom and dad bathed her on the very few occasions she could take a bath.

It took a while to wash everything off, but eventually the wounds were visible to the naked eye. Lillie was both surprised and relieved upon seeing that Moon's blood had already coagulated even on the bigger wounds, hence stopping it from flowing out of her body. Maybe this was some kind of genetic quirk to the girl, explaining at least partially why she was so calm about this situation.

Still that didn't mean that the girl was out of danger just yet. Lillie still would need to properly clean the wounds and put some bandages at least on the bigger wounds just in case they opened up again for some reason or other.

Dutifully she went to work. Nebby, not wanting to simply watch all the time, had already made herself useful by finding a clean sponge on the edge of the bathtub and brought it over to her caretaker.

"Oh, thank you, Nebby."

"Pew!" Nebby smiled and bobbed her head.

With a careful touch, Lillie started by cleaning a cut Moon had received on her back. The hybrid didn't make a sound as the sponge carefully stroke her body, slowly but surely getting rid of the dirt inside her wound. She also didn't even flinch, when Lillie used the disinfectant on her. The whole cleaning and disinfecting was in all actuality not necessary, as the virus inside of Moon would simply kill anything that could potentially cause an infection, but Lillie didn't know that of course.

Speaking of not knowing, there was something Moon wanted to know, ever since she first laid eyes on it.

"So, what kind of Pokémon is Nebby?" Moon asked, while Lillie was still busy on with her back. "I mean, it's not called "Nebby" in the Pokédex, is it?"

"Uh… no. Nebby is a Cosmog." Lillie explained.

"Cosmog?" Moon repeated. "Must be an Alolan Pokémon. I have never heard of it."

"Y-yeah. Cosmogs are… rare Pokémon to say the least." Lillie answered uneasily. The uneasiness made Moon curious, but she decided not to press the subject any further for now. She was way too hungry to properly focus at this point and besides: When would she ever get such luxury treatment of a personal body cleaner ever again?

XXX

After the cleanup, which took quite a while, and emptying the bottle of disinfectant, Lillie put some bandages at least around the bigger wounds Moon had received during her unintended adventure. The hybrid inspected herself from top to bottom and nodded in approval.

"That's some nice handiwork." The hybrid commented. "Better than I have seen some field medics do. Do you plan on becoming a nurse or doctor?"

Lillie blushed at the praise and smiled. "I have thought about it." The blonde replied. "I have gotten a lot of experience in patching up injured Pokémon. Helping a human is not so different."

Moon smiled. "Welp, thank you. I owe you one, definitely." ("Maybe I won't consider killing you tomorrow.")

"Anyways, I gotta change into some new clothes." Moon looked down and found Zeveon looking up to her and Lillie, obediently waiting for… something. Moon wasn't sure what.

"Make yourself comfortable or something. Sorry about the boxes, we just moved in."

"It's no problem, really." Lillie replied. "I'm just glad I could help you, after you helped Nebby so much."

"Pew!"

Moon nodded to both human and Pokémon and walked off into her room.

"Zee!"

Zeveon quickly followed her and was just quick enough to get inside, before the hybrid was able to close the door. Once inside, Zeveon began looking around the room, sniffing and touching everything it deemed interesting in some way or other.

Moon in return was not too interested in what the Pokémon did, as she was more interested in getting something comfortable to wear. After changing underwear, she put on some black sweatpants and a regular red t-shirt. Immediately the girl felt better, as her skin was no longer exposed to the air. Now naturally Moon could resist far harsher climate than a little bit of cold wind, but that didn't mean that feeling cold the whole time was particularly comfortable.

Having that task scratched off her mental checklist, the next thing that stood on the agenda was calling Delaila and telling her that Moon was at home and fine. The hybrid vaguely remembered seeing the phone last in the kitchen and was about to make her way there, when Zeveon caught her attention.

"Zee?"

The Pokémon was currently looking at her mirror reflection, probably wondering just what the heck she was seeing. She raised her paw and so did her reflection. She stopped the motion in surprise and so did her reflection. Moon had seen Meowth doing this kind of thing plenty of times and it could go on for hours. As such, she picked up the bug-type, who screamed in surprise, and carried her all the way over to her bed. She placed the Pokémon on it and sat down right next to her, stroking her.

"Zee…" Zeveon made a sound of approval and rubbed her body against Moon.

"A cuddler, huh?" Moon asked. "Oh man, mom is so going to kill me when she sees you. How the heck am I going to explain a new Eevee evolution to the rest of the world, anyway?"

Zeveon didn't have an answer. Or she didn't want to answer and simply get more of the treatment Moon was giving.

The girl let out a sigh. "A Zerg-Pokémon. Wonder what Abathur would have to say to that? Speaking of Zerg, I wonder…"

It had been five years since Moon had last connected her mind to that of another Zerg organism. It had been five long years, since she had lost the connection the Hive Mind and by proxy her family. Sure she could connect her mind to Pokémon or even humans, but it was just not the same. Plus both tended to panic rather greatly, when she made her presence in their respective mind known.

With that in mind, Moon overcame her metaphysical barriers and reached out to Zeveon. It was just as easy as she remembered. The moment the connection was established, both Moon's and Zeveon's eyes glowed for a couple of seconds. After it stopped, the Zeveon took a couple of steps back from Moon and bowed her head deeply.

("How may I serve you, Princess?")


	5. Chapter 5

Moon smiled the moment she heard the Pokémon's voice in her head. It sounded surprisingly human, like a young girl to be precise.

("You know, I kind of expected your "inner voice" to be raspier. But whatever. It feels good to have someone under my thrall again. Hope you don't mind. Not that you have much of a choice.") Moon spoke to the Zeveon with a smirk creeping up her face.

The female Zeveon nodded, her face showing no emotion. ("I live to serve, just like any other member of the Swarm lives to serve.")

"Hmm, should have honestly seen that attitude coming," Moon said aloud, petting the Zeveon on the head. "I thought you'd be a bit more independent than the average Zerg given your Pokémon heritage."

("An independent mind is unnecessary. My sole purpose is to fight and die for the swarm.")

Moon couldn't help but giggle at the thoughts she was receiving. ("Well, so far I haven't heard of many deaths in Pokémon battles. Now that I think about it, the last deadly accident in an official battle was 80 years ago. Kinda boring.")

("If you so desire, I can rip my next opponent's throat apart.")

Now Moon had to laugh out loud. Just the non-caring way the Pokémon spoke about ending another life, especially since it was being said with the voice of a child. "Oh man, that'd be the day. I would pay to see the reaction of the unfortunate trainer." The girl shook her head clear. "Sadly, that's not an option at the moment."

The hybrid continued via the mind link she now shared with her Pokémon. ("For the time being, the two of us need to keep a low profile. No one on this planet knows that aliens even exist and I'd rather leave it that way for the time being. At the very least until Mom or Dad or both arrive to take us back to the Koprulu Sector. Until then, no killing unless it's absolutely necessary and even more important no infesting of other Pokémon or humans for that matter. You have been an accident, one I'd rather not repeat if I can help it.")

("I understand, princess.") Zeveon bowed her head, not in the least feeling bad about the indirect insult she had received from her master.

("Also, as long as other humans are around, act like a normal Pokémon. You know, like earlier, before I subjugated you to me.")

("As you wish.")

"Well, that should cover it," Moon mumbled to herself, putting a hand under her chin thoughtfully. "I still need to call Delaila and tell her that-"

She was put out of her musings when she heard her stomach complaining very loudly about the lack of food inside of it.

("Perhaps you should replenish your biomass reserves first, princess.") Zeveon suggested.

"Yeah, good idea." Moon agreed, rubbing over her empty stomach. She immediately spun around and headed towards her door with Zeveon jumping off the bed and followed her princess into the living room, slash kitchen area. The hybrid and the Pokémon found the two houseguests, Lillie and Nebby, sitting on the couch and Lillie's lap respectively. Nebby for her part was silently sleeping, while Lillie slowly stroked through her fluffy body. As soon as the blond heard the door open, she turned her head and found her bandaged up patient, now fully clothed, coming out of her room. Zeveon was out of her sight until the assumed bug-type walked around the couch and made it herself comfortable on the ground.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I could eat an entire herd of Miltanks." The redhead stated, opening the fridge and inspecting its contents. "You want something?"

"Uh...no, thank you." Lillie declined politely and glanced at the fallen door.

"If you say so," Moon called back, opening the fridge. To her dismay, she found the thing to be pretty much as good as empty, the exception being a couple of carrots, butter, and milk. With a grunt, she slammed the fridge shut and begrudgingly walked over to the couch and let herself fall into it.

"Umm… didn't you want-"

"Fridge is empty." Moon interrupted Lillie, her stomach rumbling loudly.

"Oh…"

"You don't happen to know if a pizza delivery service is nearby? Or something, really! I'm hungry!" Moon complained loudly. Lillie gave her a sheepish smile.

"S-sorry, I don't remember anything being close by."

"Urrgh…" Moon sunk deeper into the couch and tried to ignore the feeling of emptiness in her stomach. Lillie smiled apologetically, while the blond's hand slowly stroked through Nebby's fur.

"Umm… shouldn't you call...what was her name again?" Lillie asked.

"Delaila, yeah." Moon nodded. "I probably should, but I don't really feel like getting up at the moment. Urrgh." She groaned again, while she hefted herself off the couch. "Not looking forward to this. She's gonna freak out for sure."

"Well, anyone would be nervous, if their relative got into danger." The blonde pointed out. "At least that's the way it's supposed to be." She added.

The redhead grunted. "That's true an' all. The thing is, she usually takes it to a whole new level. Now where the fuck is the phone?"

While Moon was busy looking for the small device, Lillie eyed the red-haired girl carefully. Truth to be told the blond wasn't sure what to think of her, as she was acting completely irrationally given the circumstances. Moon had been calm and collected not only after miraculously surviving falling into the river but being lost for hours and if that was not enough, she had been attacked by a Pokémon! And Lillie was no fool, the wounds the girl had received were not just "superficial" as the girl claims they were. The blonde knew what she had seen (no matter how dark it had been) and these wounds had not been superficial. How Moon was still able to stand was a mystery in of itself, let alone walk around and search the shelves, like she was doing now.

There was a lot more Lillie could list up, but most outstanding of the girl had been these...blades? These things that had been or rather still were attached to Moon's arms had looked like blades of some kind. They were now concealed inside those very arms after she "clapped" them in or something.

"Found it!" Moon proclaimed, holding the phone up for a second before she started dialing.

Lillie could feel a headache coming up by just trying to solve the enigma that was the girl using the phone. The amount of stress that the blonde had experienced that day only served to worsen her migraine.

"Zee!" Zeveon complained when Lillie accidentally stepped with her foot on the Pokémon's tail.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Lillie apologized to the new Eevee evolution.

"Zee…" The Pokémon grumbled and trotted a couple of steps away, in order to not get stepped on again. Speaking of the Zeveon, it was probably the most normal thing that happened today. Lillie had no idea what that yellow stuff had been in which the Eevee had been covered in from head to paw. Moon had mentioned that it came from a bug Pokémon, the one she fought off… with those blades of hers? Lillie did remember learning that the evolution of an Eevee is oftentimes determined by the environment their living in. For example, Eevees living close to the coast or to a lake tend to evolve to a Vaporeon. Unless of course it somehow stumbled upon something like a fire-stone. She could already imagine the freakout Professor Kukui would have, once he got to set his eyes on the new Pokémon.

"Hey Delaila, it's-"

Even so far away, Lillie could hear the worried female voice coming out of the phone. The blonde couldn't help but giggle at her red haired friend's dismay. She stood there with her mouth only slowly closing, as the voice on the other end went on and on and on.

"Delaila-"

But Moon didn't get to say anything. This Delaila person, Lillie assumed it was Moon's sister, went on with her ramblings, occasionally gasping for air, allowing Moon to say a word or maybe two before she went on. Eventually, the voice on the other end could no longer be heard, either because Delaila finally calmed down and was now speaking in a normal matter. Or she had completely stopped speaking. It turned out to be neither.

Moon took the phone off her ear and looked at it. "The heck?" she mumbled and dialed Delaila's number again, only to get an error message from the device. After putting the device away, Moon turned her attention to Lillie.

"Is something the matter?" the blonde girl asked, to which Moon shrugged.

"I lost the connection somehow," the redhead explained. "Probably something on her end," the girl mused. "Well, whatever. I'm pretty sure she's on her way back home already."

"That is good to hear. Oh, I know!" Lillie took out her own cell phone and was pleased to see that once again she was capable of doing phone calls. "I can call the Professor now! I better tell him that I am with you."

Nebby stirred in her sleep a little upon Lillie raising her voice, but else only rolled over in her lap and continued sleeping. Moon decided to once again place herself next to Lillie on the couch. Having nothing better to do, she decided to turn on the TV, making sure to lower the volume so that her house guest could do her phone call. As to what Lillie was talking about, Moon didn't care and as such ignored the girl to the best of her abilities. She switched through the channels until she found the one that showed nothing but documentaries the whole day. Currently, they were showing something about an old shrined dedicated to Ho-Oh in the Johto region.

("Better to worship a Pokémon, than a god that is trying to eradicate all life in the galaxy, I guess.") Moon thought to herself. ("Makes me wonder what the Protoss would think of this place. I know Abathur and Dehaka would be delighted to be here at this very moment. So much new and different essence. Note to self: get both of them a Pokémon for their birthdays.")

XXX

Sometime later both Lillie and Moon were only partially awake, as the voice on the television droned on and on about the Johto's history and how the Pokémon were worshipped in the old days. Nebby was still sleeping silently on Lillie's lap. Zeveon, on the other hand, was wide awake. She may appear to be asleep, what with her lying on the ground and resting her chin on her paws. But that was just her following the orders of her princess, acting like her old, normal self would act. She may be forced to close her eyes, in order to convincingly act to be asleep, but that didn't stop her to hear or smell potential danger. Her nose had already identified an Umbreon, the Metapod hanging on the outside west house wall, three Formantis going on their usually nightly business and even an Absol passing by! Zeveon could only guess it sensed the princess and or Zeveon herself as a potential disaster in the making for the entire planet. Well, that would depend on the queen's plans for the planet, once she arrived.

But so far these Pokémon stayed away from the vicinity of the house, except for that Metapod, but they tended to be not really dangerous. This one was pretty dumb in the first place to be so close to the home of not one, but two Zerg.

So, so far no thread. However, unlike a Terran or a very poorly trained Protoss, Zeveon didn't let her guard down. The second she let her guard down could potentially be the second a Dark Templar or Ghost Operative needed to assassinate the Princess. And it turned out her work wasn't for nothing. A new, foreign smell entered the vicinity of her nose, which was ridiculously high to be sure. As such for the first couple of seconds, Zeveon didn't even stir. She could tell the smell was that of a human, but that was to be expected sooner or later. However what eventually made Zeveon stir was the intensity of the smell becoming so high, it meant that this human was passing the house. Acceptable parameters, seeing as this road was the only one leading somewhere important for humans. What completely caused Zeveon to stop her act, was when she could hear the actual footsteps.

("Princess, a human is approaching the house.") Zeveon warned, already standing up. Moon, having been woken up by her new servant, turned her heads towards the unhinged door. Just outside Moon could see a shadowy figure approaching the house.

("Probably got curious about the door. I'll handle this. Stay down.") Moon gave the mental order. The girl stood up, took the time to stretch her arms and then walked towards the door. Lillie barely noted her newfound friend leaving the couch, her tired mind too focused on the hypnotizing voice coming out of the television. Moon in the meantime waited purposefully long enough for the figure to be right in front of where the door was supposed to be, so she wouldn't weird the person out by making it look like she had been spying on them from the window or something. When the figure, which turned to be a human around Lillie's and Moon's age, the girl acted like she had just noticed this person and showed up in front of the door, slightly surprising the person in the process.

"Can I help you?" Moon asked the human that turned out to be a boy. Said boy had dark skin, was slightly smaller than Moon, had his black-greenish hair tied up into a short ponytail, grey-greenish eyes, wore a black shirt, orange shorts with a flower theme, sandals, and an orange bag.

"Oh...uh… heya." The boy replied, catching himself. "I just saw that the door is kind of… missing."

"Oh, that?" Moon asked, a small smile appearing on her lips. "Yeah, I didn't like it anymore, so I decided to murder it. See?" Moon gestured towards the fallen door inside the house.

The boy looked pretty surprised and appeared not to be sure how to react to that. He was about to say something when he noticed something about the girl he should have noticed from the very start.

"Hey, whoa! Hold on a minute! What happened to you?! You're pretty bandaged up!" the boy pointed out the obvious, at the same time pointing with her finger at one of Moon's bandaged arms.

"Yeah, the door fought back," Moon replied, not really wanting to talk about the happenings of today to some random stranger, even if or rather especially because the stranger wasn't an adult.

"H-hey! This is no joking matter!" The child retorted. "You should go and have someone at the Pokémon Center have a look at you!" The boy insisted and looked like he was ready to grab Moon's arm and drag her all the way to the next best Pokémon Center. Luckily it didn't come to that, as his shouting had woken up another current resident of the house. Carrying Nebby in her arms, Lillie made her way over to the entrance, curious as to who was speaking with Moon.

"Hau?" the blonde girl spoke up, getting the attention of both Moon and the boy. Both turned their heads towards the new arrival, the boy taking an involuntary step back upon seeing the blonde girl. "What are you doing here?"

"Lillie? You here too?" the now dubbed Hau asked. Moon looked between the two for a moment, before asking.

"You two know each other?"

Both Lillie and Hau looked over to the redhead. Lille was the one who spoke up.

"Oh, this is Hau. He's the son of the Kahuna of this island and recently became a trainer." Lillie turned towards Hau. "This is Moon, Hau. She was supposed to get her first Pokémon today from your father, but…"

"Oh wait! Is she the one who dropped into the river?!" Hau exclaimed.

"I prefer the term: graceful falling." Moon joked. "Though a surfboard would have been really helpful back there."

"This is no joking matter." Lillie admonished the girl. "I still have a hard time believing you came out of all of this relatively okay!"

"Relatively okay?" Hau echoed. "She almost looks like a mummy!"

Moon huffed and crossed her arms. "Yeah, I got a little bit roughed up, but it's no big deal."

"No big deal?!" Exclaimed Hau, but Lillie could only sigh at this point.

"She has been acting like this ever since I found her," Lillie informed Hau. "She seems fine, but I would still be more comfortable if you would go to a Pokémon Center and let Nurse Joy check up on you."

"For the umpteenth time, I'm fine," Moon said rather forcefully, causing Lillie to flinch a little. Nebby stirred in her arms and let out a yawn, but continued sleeping. "You have seen what's under these things." Moon pointed at her bandages. "A few cuts, some bigger than others, but nothing that won't heal on its own."

"Hey, hey, calm down there." Hau quickly stepped between Moon and Lillie, holding his arms up in a peaceful matter. "She's just worried about you, you know? No need to be so aggressive, you know."

Hau and Moon stared at each other for a couple of seconds, until Moon let out a sigh and nodded.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Guess the hunger is getting the better of me." As if to emphasize her words, her stomach began to grumble really loud. In fact, it was loud enough to wake up Nebby, who let out a tiny "Pew", looking around slightly dazed. Moon in the meantime was holding her arms over her stomach. "Tch should have taken some of those dumb berries with me." The redhead muttered.

"Oh, you're hungry? Guess you didn't get much to eat, huh?" Hau commented.

"You mean between sleeping off my jet lag and getting flushed down the river? Not really." Moon admitted.

"You know, at the Pokémon Center, they have a restaurant," Lillie told Moon with a sheepish smile. The hybrid gave the human an unimpressed look.

"You really do want me to go to the Pokécenter, do you?"

"Ehehehe, it's only for your best, you know?"

"Yeah, right. Pass." Moon waved off. "Besides, Delaila is already on her way here. If I leave now, she'll only freak out more, when she can't find me here."

"Uh… Delaila?" Hau asked before he remembered. "Oh! That was the woman who was with the Professor. Yeah, she looked really worried when I saw her. Honestly, she looked like she was ready to break down in tears. But she had a Meowth with her, who really did a great job in supporting her."

Moon smiled a little. "Yeah, Delaila is like a mother to Meowth. We got him when he was an egg. She was the first thing he saw when he hatched. No surprise he would go with her, instead of staying at home."

"Sounds like one loyal Pokémon," Hau said in admiration.

"Yeah, you could say that. Ow…" Moon bend over a little, when her stomach grumbled once again. It really started to hurt the girl.

"Um… maybe you should lie down," Lillie suggested, putting a hand on Moon's shoulder. "I don't care if you feel "fine", you really need your rest."

"Pew!" Nebby agreed, at least everyone around thought she agreed.

"Urrgh, can't argue with that," Moon replied. "Just wish I had something to bite. Sorry if I'm rambling by now."

"Nah, it's fine. Hey, I think I got something for ya!" Hau exclaimed putting his bag down and rummaging through its contents. Moon and Lillie eyed him curiously until he took out a smaller bag with some kind of logo on it. Under the logo was written the word "Malasada".

"Here." Hau held out the bag to Moon.

"Uh...thanks?" Moon opened the bag and found some kind of pastry inside. It had sugar all over it and generally looked tasty. Without any hesitation, she grabbed the sticky thing and swallowed it in one go. To her delight, she found out that the pastry had been filled with sweet jam, which was now flowing all over her tongue. With a loud moan, she swallowed the pastry completely and licked the sugar off her lips.

"By Tassadar's underpants, I NEEDED that!" Moon exclaimed, surprising Lillie and Hau a little bit.

"Thanks, man. I owe ya one." The redhead told the boy, who laughed good-heartedly.

"Glad to be of help."

"Thank you, Hau." Lillie nodded appreciatively. "But I think Moon should rest now."

"Yeah say, why are you still awake? I mean I helped to look for her, but now that she is fine and with her mom on her way, I thought you two would want to take a rest."

"With the door as it is?" Moon pointed at the still unhinged door. "I at least wanted to wait until Delaila's back."

"Speaking of the door, you still haven't told me what happened." Hau pointed out.

"I told ya, I didn't like the door anymore."

XXX

In the end, Hau didn't get an answer. Lillie had been insistent that Moon gets her much needed rest and the son Hala's conceded the point. He left the house, promising to check up again the next day. For some reason, the Professor and Delaila took their time to return to the house and Lillie knew it would be detrimental to Moon's health to stay awake any longer. She and Nebby helped the redhead into her bed, with Zeveon following them into Moon's room.

"You're acting like you're my mother." Moon chuckled, as she made it herself comfortable on the bed.

"I'm just making sure you stay healthy," Lillie replied, watching Moon carefully as the girl pulled the covers over herself.

"Pew." Nebby flew next to Lillie and attempted to eye the redhead just as carefully, but the poor Pokémon was obviously too tired to be of much help. Seeing this, Lillie gently grabbed the cloud-like Pokémon and laid it inside her bag to rest. Moon looked over to the blonde girl and let out a small breath.

"What about you? Don't tell me you're gonna stay here until Delaila gets here."

"Zee!" Zeveon jumped on Moon's bed and placed herself next to her Princess, from which she could keep an eye on the blonde girl. Said blonde smiled and attempted to pet the Pokémon. On orders of her Princess, Zeveon allowed the human to go through with her gesture of affection.

"Feels a little weird," Lillie mumbled to herself, as this was her first time petting a bug-type. Out loud, the girl said: "I will do just that. Someone needs to tell Delaila what happened and you certainly cannot do that. And I'd rather have you a good night's rest than to be woken up in the middle of the night."

Moon couldn't help but laugh. "You're weird, you know that? Haha, I wonder, I wonder..." Moon mused, before closing her eyes. Zeveon did not do the same this time but kept an eye on the blonde girl in front of her. Lillie smiled at the Pokémon and leaned back in Moon's chair. Truth to be told, Lillie was pretty tired herself. It was pretty tempting to just close her eyes and doze off for five minutes. However, Lillie knew all too well how fast five minutes could turn into five hours or even more. And if this Delaila person just found her here sleeping, who knows what she would think of Lillie. Not to mention there was still the issue with the door. Little did Lillie know that the thing with the door was a pretty common occurrence in this very household.

XXX

Moon could tell it was the next morning by the variety of bird Pokémon "singing" their so-called "songs" outside. Though in her opinion, it was just a lot of noise that they were making, nothing more. With an annoyed huff, she turned over in her bed, fully intending on sleeping for way longer. Sadly it appeared like fate wouldn't allow her to do just that. Moon could hear the door to her room being opened by someone. That very someone entered said room, trying to be as silent as possible. Though with Moon's enhanced hearing, they might as well be carrying a boombox, with heavy metal blaring out of the speakers. It certainly didn't help, when they wrapped their arms around her body and pressing the two together.

"Morning Delaila," Moon grumbled, making it clear that she was not happy with being held back from falling asleep again.

"My poor baby," Delaila whispered, her voice clearly cracking. It wasn't hard to imagine that Delaila had been crying for an extended period of time, it was only natural."My poor, poor baby."

Moon suppressed a sigh, knowing that this would be more than just disrespectful. Instead, she just let her current caretaker hold her for however long Delaila needed to hold her until the woman was ready to let go of the girl. It took some time, but eventually, Delaila managed to let go of her charge, if reluctantly, and allowed Moon to turn around and look at the woman.

"You look like Meowth got run over by a truck and then squashed by an airplane." the girl said cheekily, upon seeing her caretaker's devastated face. Said caretaker punched the red-haired girl ever so slightly on her forehead, a laugh and a hiccup escaping her at the same time.

"Why do you always have to be like this?" Delaila asked smiling, but a single tear was running down her cheek. "I was worried sick yesterday. I thought that you… you…"

Moon looked to the side. "Yeah, that was a close call. Even I thought I was done for this time."

Of course, these words only caused Delaila to hiccup even more. The woman wrapped both arms around the girl and pulled her closer to herself until Moon's chin rested on Delaila's chest. Moon could hear the adult sniffling and pressing her face into Moon's red hair.

"You don't know how glad I am that you're okay," Delaila whispered, barely able to hold back her tears from streaming out. In order to prevent that from completely happening, Moon opted to stay silent and just hugged the adult back. For a long time, they stayed like this, comforting each other in their embrace. But of course, this moment couldn't last forever. Mostly because Moon's bio-system was still lacking a huge amount of biomass. A very, VERY loud gurgle sound brought the attention of the two back to reality and both couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh man…" Moon complained, rubbing her empty stomach.

"Come on." Delaila nudged her care to stand up. "It's overtime for breakfast."

"Sure." Moon threw the covers away, revealing that she was still wearing the clothes from yesterday, as well as the bandages. The hybrid noted that her human caretaker did her best to not break down at the sight of the bandages.

The part Zerg, part human hybrid followed Delaila out of the room and into the kitchen/living room area, where she found a little surprise waiting for her. Not only was the breakfast table prepared with all kind of stuff that hadn't been there the day before, but Lillie and Nebby were present as well.

"Good morning, Moon." Lillie greeted happily. "You already look a lot better."

"Peeew!" Nebby greeted the redhead as well.

"Morning. You're still here?" the hybrid asked in confusion.

"I allowed her to stay here for the night," Delaila explained as she led her care to the breakfast table, even going as far as holding the chair for her. "After everything she did for you, it was only right to let her stay for the night."

"Thank you very much for your generosity."

"Pew!"

Delaila laughed. "Oh, none of that. If it weren't for you and your little friend, my daughter might still be lost in the wilderness."

"Hey, speaking of wilderness, where the heck is-?" Before she could finish the question, Moon found Zeveon in the corner of the room, playing tug of war with Meowth.

("I am attempting to maintain my cover, Princess.") Zeveon mentally told her master.

"That is one interesting friend you made, Moon," Delaila commented, preparing a sandwich for Moon.

"You know, I can do this myself." Moon pointed out, but the plate had already been served to her.

"Don't worry about this, sweetheart. You must be starving! And knowing your appetite, you probably can't wait to dig in."

"That's true." Moon swallowed half the sandwich with one bite and chewed on it not more than necessary, before swallowing it. "But that doesn't mean that you have to spoon feed me now. I can take care of this myself."

"Oh no, not today. Today Mommy is going to pamper her child as if she were her grandchild."

"Delaila!" the girl shouted, her face red from embarrassment.

As the banter between the two went on, Lillie couldn't help but notice some details that stuck out to her and especially her. For instance, Moon referred to her mother always as "Delaila", never "mother" or even "mom". Whereas Delaila referred to Moon as her child, her baby, her sweetheart. Another thing Lillie noticed was that Delaila's smile appeared to be strained, which was most likely due to the happenings of the previous day. Finally, Moon's features appeared to be mostly impassive, the only real emotion she showed that being of embarrassment. Lillie wasn't sure how to take all of this. Was this really how normal families interacted with each other? It certainly looked different from what she had seen on TV. Or read in a book for that matter.

A few light taps on her hand from Nebby signaled the blonde that her charge was hungry. With a quick motion of her hand, Lillie signaled the Pokémon to come to her lap. The nebula Pokémon followed the order without hesitation. Nebby wiggled excitedly on her caretaker's lap, while the human was busy preparing a meal for the Pokémon. It was a slice of bread with butter and oran berry marmalade. Nebby loved marmalade above all else, no matter which fruit it was made off. She squealed in delight when she saw that her caretaker was preparing her favorite breakfast.

The squeal got the attention of Delaila and Moon, who up to this point had been busy arguing whether it was a good idea to eat salami, peanut butter, marmalade and cheese on the same slice of bread or not.

The two pseudo-family members observed with varying degrees of interest, as Lillie cut the bread into bite-sized pieces and brought the first one to Nebby's mouth. Without any hesitation, the Pokémon took the piece away from Lillie and chewed happily on the bread. Lillie smiled happily, already holding the next piece in her two fingers. For the next couple of minutes, the blonde visitor was busy feeding her Pokémon. Occasionally, Lillie would hold her own cup of hot cocoa to Nebby, allowing the Pokémon to take some tiny sips from the mug. A few tiny breadcrumbs gathered around Nebby's cheek in the process of eating. In response, her caretaker took out a handkerchief from her pockets and proceeded to clean up her charge.

"Oh Nebby, why do you always have to make a mess of yourself?" Lillie lamented.

"Peeeewww!" Nebby squealed and then proceeded to lick the hand that was not holding the handkerchief. Apparently, Lillie had made quite the mess on her hand herself, what with a few splats of marmalade having trailed down from the bread to her fingers and finally her palm. Nebby was thorough with her cleaning, not wanting to let a single bit of the tasty treat gone to waste. Lillie put the handkerchief away and waited patiently for Nebby to finish the "cleanup" of her hand so that Lillie herself could finally have breakfast.

"Must. Resist. Making. Sex. Joke." Moon said in a mantra-like fashion, gaining her a look of confusion from Lillie and a disapproving one from Delaila.

XXX

After that little episode, breakfast wrapped up rather peacefully. Delaila kept on insisting on doing every basic little thing for Moon, preparing cocoa, eggs, and even more sandwiches, just to name a few things. Neither the redhead nor the blonde commented on her behavior. Instead, both focused on helping clean up the breakfast table and the dishes by proxy. Moon handled bringing the food back into the cupboards and the fridge, while Lillie brought Delaila the dishes and silverware, who would then clean them and sort them into the cupboards as well.

The Pokémon in the meantime was busy taking a nap. After playing the entire morning, Meowth was exhausted and needed a bit of sleep. Nebby had eaten a lot for a Pokémon of her size and as such was feeling rather tired due to her tummy being busy digesting everything. Zeveon, on the other hand, wasn't tired at all. Again she just acted like she was sleeping and relied on her other senses to keep an eye on things. Though for some reason Meowth and Cosmog had unanimously agreed that Zeveon's body was a rather comfortable pile of flesh and used her as a pillow.

The humans in the meantime sat back on the table after they were done with their chores. Moon sat next to Delaila, while Lillie sat on the other side looking at both of them.

"So, what did I miss?" Moon asked, ignoring the itching feeling she got under a spot of her bandages. They already began to feel like a second skin to her.

"Oh, I found this nice girl asleep in your chair, after I came back," Delaila informed her daughter with an amused smile. Lillie blushed embarrassed. It certainly had not been her intention to just fall asleep on the spot.

"After I woke her up she explained to me what happened. Not before apologizing about the door though." the woman frowned, to which Moon grinned cheekily.

"Hey, this time you certainly can't blame me for that. Unless you wanted us to stay outside the entire night."

"Th-this time?" Lillie echoed, to which Moon answered with a wink.

"I told you it took a lot of practice until I figured out just how to unhinge the door, without damaging it."

"Er..." Lillie felt a heavy beat of sweat rolling down the back of her head. "Sure..."

"Ahem, back on topic," Delaila spoke a little louder. "Lillie, I want to thank you from the depths of my hard for helping my daughter. If it wouldn't have been for you, who knows what would have happened to my daughter."

"Oh...er... I only did what anyone would have done." Lillie tried to downplay her accomplishments. "Really I did nothing extraordinaire."

"What?" Moon gave her a deadpan expression. "Did you forget already? As soon as you saw me, you pretty much acted like a Kangashkan. Heck, you went as far as to drag me into the bathroom, clean me up personally and even bandaged me up without batting an eye. Or allowed me to fight back really. You did more than most humans would do in this kind of situation. Trust me, I know..." The last words were spoken too quiet for the other two to hear.

Delaila nodded approvingly. "My daughter is right, you shouldn't sell yourself short. What you did was amazing."

Once again Lillie blushed, not used to be given such high praise. She knew she had gathered some knowledge in fixing up humans and Pokémon alike by assisting the Professor, but for her, that really wasn't that much.

"...Thank you," she spoke in a meek tone.

"Of course, my dear. Now then to go on where I left off, after I woke Lillie up and she explained everything to me, I made a quick call to the Professor. He allowed Lillie to stay here for the night. Speaking of him, he said he is going to meet you in Iki Town, Lillie."

"Oh, okay." Lillie nodded. "Hmm, I wonder what he is doing in Iki Town." She spoke more to herself than anyone else.

"By the way Delaila, what happened yesterday, when I called you?" Moon asked. "The connection was just lost from one second to the other."

"Oh that. I forgot to charge my phone." Delaila answered sheepishly.

"Urgh, again?" Moon facepalmed. "Should have known."

Delaila just smiled sheepishly at her adopted daughter. "I'm sorry, I wasn't really thinking straight yesterday." Out of nowhere she wrapped an arm around Moon and pulled her closer. "But I am glad you're okay."

"You already said that." Moon pointed out but hugged back anyways.

"Yes, I know. But that's just how mothers are. We worry a lot about our children." Delaila let go of her child and turned her attention to Lillie. To her surprise, she found the girl looking at the house owners in a rather strange fashion. Was that jealousy that Delaila saw in the blonde's eyes? As soon as their eyes met it was gone. Maybe Delaila just imagined it?

"Thank you again, Lillie. Know that you're always welcome inside our four walls."

"Thank you," Lillie replied a little surprised.

"Well then." Delaila took in a deep breath and returned her attention to her adopted daughter. Said redhead had placed her bandaged arms on the table and was resting her head on her arms. "Moon... how are you feeling now?"

"Itchy." Came the immediate reply. "I completely forgot how itchy the skin gets when you're wearing bandages." She let out an annoyed sigh. "But else I'm fine. Damn, how often have I said that sentence the past 24 hours?" she wondered.

"Moon... Scarlett."

Now Delaila had her adopted daughter's full attention, for Moon knew that her caretaker usually only used her first name when she was about to say something serious.

"I...I know you never wanted to go on a Pokémon journey." Delaila said with her eyes closed.

"Huh?" Lillie was confused. This was the first time she had ever heard of a ten-year-old not wanting to go on a Pokémon journey. Even she found the idea of going on a journey very appealing. She just didn't like it when Pokémon injured each other in battle. Plus there was this thing with her own mother...

"Yeah?" Moon tilted her head on her arms. "I only said that like a million times."

It was Delaila's turn to sigh. "I know, my dear. I know. I just wanted to say..." Delaila closed her eyes. "I won't force you to go on a journey anymore."

There was a slight pause among the three humans. Only the gentle breaths of the Pokémon could be heard for two seconds until Moon asked with ever so slight disbelieve: "Really?"

Delaila opened her eyes and nodded. "If you want to stay here, then I don't mind. I won't force you to do something that you don't want to do."

Moon blinked a couple of times before she pushed herself off the table and stretched herself as much as her wounds allowed her to do. "Go figure. If I'd have known that earlier, I would have jumped off a bridge months ago."

"Moon!" Delaila shouted aghast. Lillie as well appeared to be shocked by her words. "Don't joke about this! This is serious!"

"Jeez, chill out, will ya?" Moon stood up from the table, muttering: "Can't even crack some good old dark humor." Out loud she said: "Welp, in that case, I'm gonna need to tell the Professor that the whole shtick has been canceled. Hey Zeveon, you up for a walk?"

The Pokémon in question looked up and blinked as if her eyes needed time to adjust to the light around it. She then stood up, stretched herself like a cat and yawned, before approaching her princess. Nebby and Meowth found themselves rudely awakened by their pillow suddenly disappearing from under their heads.

Delaila watched with interest as the bug-type approached her daughter until it stood in front of her. The woman stood up and walked up to her daughter and the Pokémon, bending down to pet it. Zeveon allowed the petting without any resistance.

"At least something good came out of this," Delaila mumbled.

"Hey, Lillie. Should we go to Iki Town together? Seeing as we both have business to attend there."

"Okay," Lillie answered, not seeing any downsides with this. Quite the contrary actually. "Should we go now?"

"Sure. Delaila?"

The woman stood up and looked down at the redhead. "Alright, but be careful, okay?" The adult put both hands on Moon's shoulders as she said that.

"Don't worry. Should be no problem."

"...Alright. I'll see you later." Delaila kissed Moon's forehead, before sending her and Lillie off. Before that, Lillie had already put Nebby back into her bag, who still appeared to be slightly grumpy after being awoken so rudely earlier.

XXX

Outside Moon, Lillie and Zeveon followed the path that the redhead and the professor had taken the other day together. For the first ten minutes nobody said anything that was until they were at the cliff, from which they could even see the ocean. Moon stopped in front of Lillie and Zeveon and turned around towards them.

"So, I guess it's finally time."

"Time for what?" asked Lillie confused.

"Well, yesterday you appeared to be at least slightly curious about these." Without any kind of warning, Moon unleashed the blades from her arms, perfectly cutting through the bandages on her arms, which dropped to the ground in return. Now with her arms exposed, Lillie could see that almost all of the injuries were gone, only a few small ones remained and they looked like some simple cuts.

Lillie shrieked involuntarily when the two weapons made themselves present with a loud snap. The blonde was relieved to see that Moon *clapped* them back into her arms, though inwardly the girl was still very much terrified.

"Welp, time to give you an explanation, I guess." ("And depending on how this turns out, your corpse might very well end up at the bottom of this cliff today.")


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: So, the reason this took so long was because I was never happy how this chapter turned out to be. Even now I'm not satisfied with the result. But I figured, I'll let you decide how this one turned out to be.**

There was something satisfying about seeing someone tremble in front of you. That's what Moon thought to herself, as she waited amused for the blonde in front of her to finally open her mouth and get some actual words out, instead of the occasional whimper. Well, it had already been five minutes, so there should be something coming out anytime soon, right?

…

Right?

…

Okay, that joke got old quickly. Let's just skip ten more minutes and get going, my Zergling is pestering me to go for a walk again.

"W-w-what are those things?" Lillie eventually stuttered out. Moon actually needed a moment to process what the girl had said because she had stopped paying attention to her quite a while ago.

"Those things?" Moon repeated, only to realize what the blonde meant a second later. "Oh, the arm blades, right?" she asked, just to be sure.

Lillie nodded hesitantly, her face having written worry all over it. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but the fact that the redhead in front of her was smiling somehow unnerved the blonde.

"Well, as the name already says, they're just that. Blades I can clap out and use them to cut all kinds of things."

"B-but, why do you have those things?!" Lillie couldn't help but exclaim. "I-I mean those aren't natural at all! H-how…?" she needed to take in a deep breath in order to finish that sentence "How do you have them?"

("Hmm, I thought she'd talk around the subject a little more, but that's fine with me. Zeveon?")

("Princess?")

("Get ready to kill her Pokémon, just in case. I'll take care of her if things don't go the way I like them to.")

("Understood.")

Zeveon trotted over from Moon to Lillie and sat down next to the blonde girl's legs. Said girl didn't pay her any attention, as she was still waiting for an answer from Moon.

"Hmm, okay, how do I say this without sounding like a complete nutjob?" the redhead wondered to herself genuinely.

"Umm…" Lillie hesitated. "Why would you say that?" she asked.

Moon sighed, looking over towards the ocean. "'Cause I have really crazy things to tell you, that's for sure." The redhead spotted a flock of Lapras in the distance. Normal humans would see them as only black dots in the distance, but if the Lapras held course for one hour that would change. She turned her head back to Lillie, her smile disappearing.

"Tell me, Lillie, are there any theories out there about aliens or life outside of this planet?"

"Uh, what?" Lillie was completely taken off guard by this question. She wondered where this all of the sudden came from, but didn't ask. Instead, she gained a thoughtful expression for a moment, trying to recall everything related to the topic.

"Uhh… I heard some theories that Pokémon came from another planet or that we were engineered by aliens, but… nothing conclusive. Why do you ask?" Lillie asked in return, tilting her head.

Moon crossed her arms, frowning. It looked like even she knew more about alien theories on this planet than the girl in front of her. "Well, if there are Pokémon living on other planets, I haven't visited them yet. Well, there are those really crazy dogs on Logos III…" Moon trailed off for a second, before refocusing on Lillie. "But yeah, personally this is the first planet I have encountered that has those weird creatures."

Lillie blinked a couple of times, after hearing those words. "First...planet?"

A small smile graced Moon's lips. "Yeah, for reals. I mean we have some crazy stuff back on Char, but nothing that's basically a living flamethrower. Or ice cream for that matter. Seriously, why do you guys have living ice cream on this planet?" Moon spoke annoyed, thinking about one very specific Pokémon. "What I also don't get is the level of technology on this planet. I mean you have freaking teleporters here, but the furthest you have shot your rockets is your own moon? How does that even work?"

"W-w-w-wait!" Lillie exclaimed, realizing exactly what Moon meant with those words. "A-are you saying… that you're from another planet?!" Lillie shouted, taking a step backward.

"Technically I was born on a space vessel…" Moon scratched her head. "And it wasn't even the Hyperion, it was on mom's Leviathan. What am I supposed to fill out, when someone needs to know my place of birth? Coordinates K-6435988-2000981-9578465?"

"You're joking," Lillie breathed out. "That's a joke, right?"

("Figures.") Moon thought to herself. ("Despite having seen my weapons, she still doesn't believe me. Guess a little bit of demonstration is in order.")

Moon held two fingers in front of her mouth and started choking. Lillie immediately grew worried and approached the redhead. However, just as she was only two steps away, Moon stopped and spit directly onto her fingers. Surprised and slightly disgusted, Lillie took a step backward.

"Ew. What did you do that?" the blonde asked.

Instead of giving the girl a direct answer, the hybrid turned her fingers around and showed just what was stuck on them. Lillie was ready to make another disgusted sound but stopped when she saw the actual liquid on the fingers. Instead of transparent spit, there was something yellow there. It took only a moment for the blonde's brain to kick in and she recognized it.

"Wait. Isn't that…?"

"Yup." Moon nodded and rubbed everything off on her own arm. "I lied yesterday about something, you know? While there was a bug-type there who beat up Zeveon, the stuff didn't come from it. It came from me."

"Huh?!" Lillie blinked, surprised.

"You see, it has its advantages being a hybrid between a human and an alien. The blades are a good example. Or having an organ that creates an enzyme, which in return can speed up the healing process of open wounds."

Lillie's eyes widened in realization. "So… all of that yellow… it came from you?!"

Moon let out a small sigh and nodded. "The Eevee was hurt and since no one seemed to be around, I figured I could safely use my abilities without being spotted. But then of course two things happened. One" Moon held up a finger "your Pokémon ran off and led you to me. Second" she raised her second finger "Zeveon happened. Though, I'm still trying to figure out as to how."

"S-so it's true? You're an… an…?"

"Alien? I'm half-human to be precise. The alien part comes from my mom. My real mom, not the woman you met earlier."

Lillie couldn't help but stare at the girl in front of her. She had a pretty hard time believing as to what she was hearing, yet at the same time she couldn't come up with an explanation of her own. She felt the need to sit down all of the sudden and given what she had been through these past 24 hours no one could really blame her. Moon just crossed her arms, while her Zeveon eyed the blonde girl carefully, looking out for any kind of hostile action she might take. However, the only thing that Lillie really did was stare listlessly at her legs, the wind being the only one who made any kind of noise.

Moon, on the other hand, didn't have the patience to wait for the blonde again to come to her senses. The hybrid walked up to the girl until her body threw a shadow directly onto the human.

"Hey, are you going to sit there all day?" the redhead asked, glaring down at the blonde.

"Huh?" Lillie looked up, still having to squint her eyes, despite most of the sun's rays being blocked by Moon's body. "I-I'm sorry." Lillie looked down at her legs again. "It's just… a lot to take in."

"Yeah, I guess," Moon nodded, somewhat understanding. "But I'm in kind of a bind, you see? You're the very first person on this planet that knows about my… let's call it "heritage" and I'd like it to stay that way."

She knelt down until she was at eye level with the other girl. "What I want to say is I need you to promise me to not tell anyone about this. Got it?"

Lillie looked up to the girl, thinking. She was still pretty much confused about basically everything, but she could understand the other girl wanting to keep a secret, especially one as big as this. After all, Lillie had a lot of secrets herself. And more importantly, she knew the consequences of even one of them getting public attention.

"I… I think I understand." Lillie nodded, only for Moon to narrow her eyes.

("The moment of proof.

...

Wow, even in my head that line sounds so cliché.")

Out loud, the hybrid spoke: "That's nice of you to say, but here's the kicker. I barely know you. Who's to say you won't break your promise at any time?"

XXX

Professor Kukui wiped the sweat off his forehead, as he put up the last of the torches for the upcoming festival. Looking around he found the townsfolk working hard to put up their individual stands, to be ready in time. They already were behind schedule, mostly due to the fact that practically everyone had left their houses the day before in order to look for the missing girl. While she had been found a couple of hours later, it had taken even more time relaying the message to everyone, since they had been practically scattered across half the island. By the time everyone had gotten back, it was sunrise and most people couldn't help themselves, but sleep for a couple of hours, before really starting the day. As a result, everyone worked double as hard to get ready in time.

"Everything alright, Kukui?" The professor heard a familiar voice coming from behind himself. Turning around, he found the Kahuna of Mele-Mele Island approaching him.

"Ah, Kahuna. Yup." Kukui nodded. "Everything A-Okay. Glad I could help out once again."

"Thank you for the help," the Kahuna replied. "Without you, this would be a lot harder. By the way, have we heard from the girl?"

"Not as of yet," Kukui shook his head. "But I have Lillie staying over at her place. If anything happens, she'll call me immediately. I trust her with that." The professor then crossed his arms, frowning. "But after that stunt yesterday, man, I'm just glad she made it out there relatively unharmed. I bet she's not gonna want to leave her home anytime soon. Can't exactly blame her, y'know?"

The Kahuna, Hala, nodded solemnly. "It is my own fault. That bridge should have been closed off and renovated ages ago. It's quite frankly a miracle that she is even alive." The old man clenched his fist. "I'll personally have to apologize to her and her mother for everything."

"Hmm." The Professor nodded. "Yeah, just be ready for some serious shouting. I was looking with her the other day and let me tell you that woman can turn into a banshee at a moment's notice."

Kahuna Hala chuckled a little. "I'll cross that bridge when the time comes. For now, I'm a bit of a pickle you see. Originally it was my grandson and the girl, Moon who were supposed to participate in this year's ritual. However, without Moon here, I'm having trouble finding a suitable opponent."

"Really?" Kukui asked, scratching his cheek. "It's not like there's a lack of trainers around these parts, you know."

"That's not the problem, my boy." The Kahuna shook his head. "The problem is, this will be the very first fight Hau ever had. Plus he only had his Pokémon for about a day. Tradition states that the fight between the two trainers must be equal."

"Oh yeah, forgot about that little tidbit," Kukui conceded. "Yeah, I can see your problem now. But there's gotta be someone around who fits the bill. And if not, can't we just swap out Hau, as heartless as it might sound."

The Kahuna sighed. "I promised Hau to allow to participate this year. He has been looking forward to it for so long, it would be cruel just to take it away from him at a moment's notice." Yet as things stood, it looked like the old man had no other choice unless he wanted to break tradition. And as silly as it sounded, breaking any kind of tradition, even a small one such as this, was out of the question. The people of Iki Town were very proud of their traditions and fond of their religion. It would take a lot more than just an inconvenience to neglect any of those things.

"Well, I could go to Pokémon school and ask if a fitting candidate is available on a short notice," Kukui offered. "Other than that, I'm afraid there's not much I can do."

"Oh, thank you again, my boy. You really don't need to do all of this."

"Ah, it's nothing Hala." Kukui waved off with his arm, smiling. "I'm having fun with all of this. Besides, seeing Pokémon and their trainers fight together for the first time is always an interesting experience. Seeing the first chain of their bond being forged in their first ever battle, there's just something magical about this moment."

"Ha, I know what you're talking about, my boy," Hala agreed. "Very well. I need to oversee the other preparations. Could you in the meantime go ahead and call the school?"

"No problem, chief. Just leave it all to me." Kukui gave the Kahuna a two-finger salute, before taking out his phone and looking for a silent spot, where he could talk in peace. The Kahuna in the meantime made his way towards the various stalls that were being prepared by the families living here.

"Hello Kahuna Hala," one of the temporary merchants greeted him. "You look a little down."

"Hello Maarav," the Kahuna greeted back. "And I would be lying if I claimed the opposite. What happened yesterday… I'm just glad the girl is okay."

Maarav nodded, understanding. "Yeah, you're right. I can't imagine how the girl must feel right now. In hindsight, we should have closed off that bridge earlier."

"It's easy to say "in hindsight", but in the end, as the Kahuna, I bear responsibility for everything that happens on the shrine grounds."

"No Kahuna, all of us-"

"Don't try to persuade me, Maarav," Hala interrupted the villager. "What happened was my responsibility and I'll take every repercussion that comes with it."

"Repercussions? What are you talking about Kahuna?"

XXX

"So, they sent you away at the end?" Lillie asked as she and the human-alien hybrid came closer to Iki Town.

"It was the best choice for everyone," Moon shrugged, her arms crossed behind the back of her head. "Can't say I'm particularly happy about it, but what can you do with an all-out war going on out there?"

Lillie flinched, as soon as the word "war" was spoken by Moon. "I… I still have a hard time believing that out there…" Lillie shivered. "That there is a war going on in space," she finished with a whisper.

("You don't even know half of it. I just gave you the light version of what's really going on.") Moon blew a raspberry. "When I arrived on this rock, I was surprised how there is no war going on! That was a one-eighty, let me tell ya!"

"But… wasn't it a good change?" Lillie asked. "I mean, isn't that why your parents wanted you to be away?"

Moon sighed, rubbing her temples. "I guess it's better, but it still took a lot of getting used to. You need to understand I practically grew up on a military ship, with no contact with other children. Heck, the first time I talked to someone, I accidentally traumatized them, by telling them in detail how the paramedics were forced to amputate the leg of an injured soldier in the hallway!"

Lillie's face grew green at the mental image.

"You see, he was poisoned. And they had to stop the poison from spreading into the rest of his body before they could properly operate him." Moon looked over to Lillie, showing no emotion whatsoever. "I was three years old at the time and I still consider this to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen."

Lillie stopped dead in her tracks, staring disbelievingly at the red-haired girl. Moon noticed a second later that the other girl had stopped moving and Zeveon, who had been trailing behind, almost slammed into Lillie's legs. Moon looked back, confused as to why Lillie would react the way she did. This time she definitely let out the details of the story, especially the bonesaw. Tassadar be damned, she wanted to have that thing as a weapon. If Terrans were good at something, it was building awesome weapons.

"Something the matter?"

Lillie kept staring at Moon for another minute until the blonde shook her head and looked down at the ground… guiltily?

"I'm sorry."

Moon blinked. "For what?"

"You… you must have had a hard childhood."

The hybrid raised an eyebrow. "Is this some kind of human thing, I'm not getting right here?" the redhead asked genuinely confused. "Damn, I guess I shouldn't have slacked off on the social study books."

It was Lillie's turn to blink in confusion. "Social… study… books?" she repeated, stupefied. It in all honestly surprised the blonde to meet someone who had even less social skills than her. At first glance, Moon had looked like a pretty normal girl with a slightly abnormal personality. Well, but now that Lillie knew a little bit more about the girl, her behavior made somehow sense, yet at the same time, it didn't.

"Oh well, that's something I can catch up later. So, sorry if I shocked you in any way or something. I sometimes still do those social blunders."

Lillie raised both eyebrows at this. Social blunders were putting it lightly. She was about to say something when she felt something shifting in her bag. She just looked down in time to see Nebby jumping out of her bag, letting out a happy squeal.

"Pew!" she shouted and headed in the direction of the town.

"Nebby! Get back into the bag, before anyone sees you!" Lillie ran after the Pokémon, leaving Moon and Zeveon back. Moon looked down on her little underling and asked: "Do you know, what I did wrong?"

("No. When I was a simple wild Pokémon, I tended to avoid human contact as much as possible. I learned very early in my life that Eevee is very desirable Pokémon for trainers.")

"Given all the evolutions your kind has, I can hardly blame them. Abathur would have a field day with you if he managed to get his claws on you." Moon looked after Lillie, who was currently chasing Nebby in circles. "He would probably develop fucking emotions as soon as he gets here. He and Dehaka both."

Moon walked towards Nebby and Lillie with Zeveon following her obediently. As soon as they got to the other two, the hybrid held out a hand and caught Nebby in mid-air, holding the tiny Pokémon on one of her antenna-like extensions. It took a while for Nebby to figure out that she had been caught and in that time she wondered, why something was pulling her back, every time she tried to get further away. It wasn't until she turned her head that she realized what was going on and by then Lillie had caught up and grabbed Nebby with both hands.

"There!" the blonde girl proclaimed. Moon let go of Nebby, allowing Lillie to turn the Pokémon around and give her a stern talking.

"Nebby! How often do I have to tell you to stay inside the bag?"

"Pew…" Nebby looked down, guiltily.

"It's too dangerous," Lillie spoke in a softer tone. "I know you're bored, but you barely have any control over your powers."

("Powers?") Moon mentally noted.

"Come, I'll play with you as soon as we're home."

"Peeewww." Nebby squealed a little bit more enthusiastically and jumped back into the bag on her own accord. Lillie let out a sigh of relief, readjusting her backpack.

"Does this happen a lot?" the redhead asked amused, to which the blonde nodded.

"I know I can't keep him in the bag all day, but Nebby is… very fragile. The only attack he knows is teleport and even with that he has problems."

"Really? What a weird Pokémon. Maybe she's just pretty young," Moon speculated and started walking again.

"I don't know, but I wouldn't want her to fight any Pokémon anyway. I don't like it when Pokémon hurt each other," Lillie said, frowning and followed Moon.

"That so? If you got a problem with Pokémon fighting, you definitely don't wanna see any of the Zerg fight."

"The Zerg… that's the race… of your mother?" Lillie asked, to which Moon nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah see, us Zerg, we're an odd bunch. We don't have any kind of technology or something like this. We rely on our biology to get around the universe, quite literally actually."

"Literally?" Lillie repeated.

"Yeah. You see, we Zerg are unique in the way that our body develope quickly depending on the circumstances we're in. For example, if I were to spend a lot of time in the ocean, my body would eventually respond by growing fins and gills."

"Wait, really?!" Lillie exclaimed, taken aback.

Moon nodded. "Another good example would be poison gas. Let's say a poison type Pokémon decides to attack me for some reason and poisons me. It would hurt like a bitch that's for sure, but after a couple of hours my body would have taken the necessary steps to make me completely immune to the poison."

"That's incredible!" "Lillie exclaimed. "Does that mean you're also immune to diseases?"

"As long as they don't manage to kill me quick enough, sure," Moon admitted.

"Wow. Being a Zerg must be incredible." Lillie stated, causing Moon to laugh out loud. "What's so funny?" the human asked.

"Ah, nothing, nothing." Moon waved off. "Just the way you said that reminded me of something funny. Anyway, there's a lot more to tell you, but we're pretty much here." Moon pointed towards the first houses, which Lillie just noticed. She had been way too distracted by Moon's explanation to notice their arrival at their destination.

"I'd rather not talk about my species in front of other humans, alright?"

"I-I understand." Lillie nodded seriously. "I'll just… if anyone asks me about your Pokémon, I'll tell them the same story you told me."

Moon smiled genuinely. "Thanks, I appreciate it." The redhead looked down at Zeveon, who just looked back up. "Welp, time to introduce you to the Professor. I wonder how he will react when he sees you."

"Oh, he will be excited," Lillie told Moon in a somber tone. "Whenever he meets a Pokémon he hasn't personally seen before, he wants to see every move it can use. And given that Zeveon is a completely new Pokémon" Lillie turned towards the bug-type and bowed "I apologize in advance for any inconvenience the Professor might cause you, Zeveon."

"Zee?" ("Why is this terran talking to me?")

XXX

As soon as the two girls and the Pokémon entered the village proper, Moon immediately kept a lookout for any Pokémon that might be running around. So far she had been unusually lucky not running into any trainer the whole way from her new home to this town and the wild Pokémon had all kept their distance from the group. This was partly because Lillie had covered herself from head to toe with Protection Spray. Even now Moon could smell that awful stuff. She definitely knew why Pokémon avoided that stuff to the best of their abilities.

The villagers were unusually busy, as the pair of girls found out. The people were setting up stalls, attaching flags and balloons to everywhere it looked good, there were torches set up and it looked like they even had a small band, preparing their ancient looking instruments. At least Moon thought they were ancient. For Lillie they were traditional.

"What's going on here?" Moon asked her companion.

"Oh, I think they're preparing for the festivities today. The Professor told me about this. It is a celebration of the island guardian, called Tapu Koko."

"Tapu what?" Moon snorted at the name.

"Tapu Koko," Lillie repeated. "Each island has its own guardian. I don't know all that much about them. But Nebby seems to be really interested in them."

"Peeeewwww!" the Pokémon confirmed from inside the bag, making it shake a little.

"So that's why you went to the ruins," Moon concluded. "Any idea why Nebby is interested in those?"

Lillie shook her head. "No, not really."

"Hello, my dears." The two girls found themselves interrupted by an older woman, who approached said, two girls. Both looked towards the woman, who had plenty of wrinkles on her face, as well as grey hair.

"I see you're wearing all of those bandages. Forgive an old woman for her curiosity, but are you alright my child?"

"Uh… yeah." Moon shrugged. "Nothing's bleeding and those things are holding up nicely."

"Are you sure? You almost look like a mummy with those things. Perhaps you should sit down somewhere? I can make you some tea if you want. A family recipe."

"No thanks, I'm fine," Moon declined politely, at least she hoped it was polite.

"Really? Well, if you can walk like this, I am sure the doctor has given you the okay. Just don't strain yourself. You should enjoy your youth, while you can." With that being said, the woman left to her own devices. Moon turned towards Lillie, frowning.

"Hey Lillie," she whispered "are all old humans like her?"

"Uh…" Lillie for her part wasn't exactly sure what Moon meant with that question. She was about to further inquire about the question, but once again their private conversation was interrupted, this time by a very familiar voice.

"Lillie? Moon?!"

Turning around once again, the two saw Professor Kukui running up to them quickly.

"What are you doing here Moon?! Shouldn't you be resting in bed?!" His shouts got the attention of every villager around, who had been working on something or other or was just passing by. Immediately the whispers began.

"Moon…?"

"Isn't that the girl we were looking for yesterday?"

"Look at those bandages."

"Man, she's tough…"

"Hey, Prof." Moon ignored the whispers to the best of her abilities. Lillie was having a harder time, as the blonde glanced around nervously.

"Nah, I'm feeling fine. The bandages are itching, though."

"Don't take them off again!" Lillie shouted, immediately stepping up when she saw the hybrid picking on the bandages on her legs. "It was bad enough when you took them off the first time! You need them, no questions asked!"

Moon rolled her eyes. "Yes, "mommy"..." the hybrid faked a pout, causing some of the people in the audience to chuckle.

"You sure?" Kukui asked, not convinced. "I mean don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're okay, however, I would also like to see you staying healthy."

"I'm fine, seriously," Moon groaned. "Why does everyone act like I'm going to fall apart any second?"

"Zeveon, zee." Zeveon approached the Professor, taking in every feature of the male Terran and trying to ascertain his combat effectiveness. By moving around the Professor and more importantly saying her own name, she had gotten the attention of said Terran. He looked down on the little Pokémon with his eyes widening.

"Whoa, hold your Rapidashs! What kinda Pokémon is this?!" he exclaimed, immediately falling to his knees. Yes falling, as in he just took his feet away from the ground and landed with his knees on said ground. Taken off guard by the motion, Zeveon jumped backward and hissed at the Professor. "Fierce little thing," the Professor commented. "Hey there, little guy. Don't worry, I won't hurt you."

("Your orders Princess?")

("Leave him alone.")

Moon decided to pick Zeveon up, in order to avoid any unfortunate accidents. She also noticed that the crowd was getting uncomfortable big and decided it was time to leave the scene.

"Hey Prof, is there any place where we can talk in private?"

XXX

To say that Kahuna Hala had been surprised, when he heard that Moon had arrived in Iki Town was an understatement. He had thought she would avoid this little community as much as humanly possible. Still, this gave him the opportunity to properly apologize to the girl for his blunder. It wouldn't mean much in the eyes of the girl and maybe even make her angry at him, but it was the right thing to do. And when Kukui asked, if they could have his home to have a proper private conversation, with immediately allowed it.

So, now he found himself with the redhead, Kukui's assistant, the young Professor himself and a certain Pokémon sitting inside his living room.

"I'm fine, I'm 100% fine, so could you guys stop asking already?" Moon complained, as she once again had been asked by the Professor if she was really okay. "Seriously, I'm gonna smack the next person who asks me that, is gonna get smacked!"

"Zeveon!"

"Yeah, you can have a piece of them too."

"Zee!" The Pokémon shouted with glee.

"Moon, we're simply worried about you," Lillie tried to explain, but it fell on deaf ears.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard ya."

Lillie let out a sigh and shook her head slowly. She already knew about a few of the special perks Moon's two-found heritage gave her, but still, no one was invincible.

"Okay, we'll stop asking. Just tell us if you're feeling… loopy," Kukui spoke carefully, not wanting to anger the girl. He knew that stress would be rather detrimental to her health at this point.

"Moon," Kahuna Hala spoke up, getting the attention of everyone in the room "as Kahuna of this Island, the Ruins of Conflict are my responsibility. As such, it is my fault that the bridge had been in such a terrible state, leading to this." He bowed until his forehead touched the ground. "I humbly apologize for the peril you have recently gone through. I take full responsibility for what happened to you."

"...Honestly? I'm not sure whether to smack you on the head or feed you to Zeveon. I tend towards the latter."

The Kahuna looked up and found the redhead putting the bug-type on her lap. "So, what do you think?" she asked her Pokémon. "Feeling the craving for human flesh as of late?"

The Zeveon looked over to the Kahuna and really seemed to contemplate the suggestion. Eventually, Zeveon shook her head, causing Moon to smile at the Kahuna. "Your lucky day. I'm gonna smack you when I feel like it."

Kukui suppressed a chortle, while Hala didn't even try to suppress his grin. "I'll be on the lookout then." The Kahuna returned to his seat, feeling relieved that the girl was taking everything so well. She seemed to have a lot of fighting spirit.

"So Moon," Kukui spoke up "if you don't mind me asking, where'd you find this Pokémon?" he asked.

Moon just told them the same lie she initially told Lillie the other day. She scared off some bug-type, who for some reason decided to attack the Eevee. Moon had hurt the bug-type by throwing a rock at it, some kind of yellow goop got splat on the Eevee, which for some reason decided evolving was a pretty good idea at this point. Lillie found her then and brought her home. The newly created Zeveon then decided to follow Moon home out of gratefulness or something.

"Wait, what?! You literally witnessed the birth of a completely new Pokémon?!" Kukui exclaimed while Hala found himself stunned into silence. He was all too aware of the Eevee evolution line and how it kept expanding. It looked like they could now add bug-type to the list of things an Eevee could become.

"That's huge! Like really, really huge! I can't wait to see what moves the little bugger has up his sleeves! WHOOP! This calls for a party!" Kukui threw his arms into the air and started to do an elaborate dance of… something. Really he was just doing some random movements. Lillie had to bury her face in her hand in shame.

"Why am I not surprised?" the blonde contemplated.

Hala laughed at the young professor's antics. "Hohoho, it looks like you made yourself a friend. I guess you'll want to start your journey with him?"

Immediately Lillie looked up and glanced over to Moon, who remained completely calm. "Yeah, about that, two things." Kukui stopped his elaborate dance, suddenly getting a bad feeling. "First, Zeveon is a girl."

"Oh." Kukui's mouth formed an o-shape. "Haha, sorry Zeveon."

The Zeveon in question harrumphed and turned her nose high, causing the other occupants of the room to chuckle.

("Where did you get that idea from?")

("I once watched a Persian doing this motion in a similar situation.")

"And secondly, I won't be going on a Pokémon journey."

Immediately the good mood in the room evaporated. Lillie and Moon watched as the heads of both older men sunk, although none of the two appeared to be surprised at all by the proclamation.

"I see," Kukui stated neutrally. "I can understand that." He grabbed into his pocket and took out some kind of small book. "Well, I guess you won't be needing this one then."

Moon raised an eyebrow. "You're not stopping me?"

"Whether someone goes on a journey or not is entirely the person's decision," Kahuna Hala explained. "Initially the two of us thought you were simply nervous. A lot of young people are. Usually, this changes once they're introduced to their first Pokémon. If they still don't want to go afterward, no one will stop them. And given what you have been through, we completely understand if you don't want to do this."

"Huh, easier than I expected," Moon commented, being pleasantly surprised with the outcome. "Welp, I guess I'm gonna head home now."

"Already?" Lillie asked, slightly surprised. "Don't you want to at least stay for the festival?"

"Nope," was Moon's immediate answer. "The last time I was on one of these, I almost got trampled down by a herd of Stantler. Don't ask." She added the last two words with a growl, making it clear she did not want to take about this particular incident.

Kukui let out a sigh. "Well, from the looks of things, we might have to cancel the festival and do it at a later date anyway."

Lillie and Moon looked at the Professor questionably. "Why is that?" the redhead asked.

"The festival is in the name of our guardian deity Tapu Koko," Hala explained. "Tapu Koko is very fond of Pokémon Battles and enjoys watching a fight as he likes fighting himself. So during the festival, two trainers will face off against each other with their Pokémon."

"There's a catch though," Kukui picked up. "The two trainers have to be similar in strength and experience. This year Hau was chosen to be one of the participants. It will be his very first Pokémon Battle to be precise."

"Hau?" Lillie repeated.

"Wasn't that the guy from yesterday?" Moon asked.

"Ah yes, Hau mentioned meeting you briefly," Hala remembered.

"Yeah, the dude saved me from starving. So, what's the problem? Can't find an opponent?"

"That's exactly it," Kukui confirmed. "It sounds crazy, but there are no other new trainers available on the island. Even some of the smaller kids around have more experience in handling Pokémon than him."

"Really?" Moon asked in slight disbelief.

"Unfortunately," Hala confirmed.

"Huh… go figure…"

Moon looked over to Zeveon, who looked back at the Princess, waiting for any potential orders from the hybrid. And orders she received, via the mind link she shared with the Princess. Naturally, she would follow these orders to a T.

"When's the fight supposed to start?"

XXX

Hau was nervous, to say the least. Sure he had his usual smile plastered across his face and he had been looking forward to this day for a long time, but man, now that he stood there in front of the entire village, he wished he had gone out of his way and challenged some of the local trainers first, in order to get a feel for these things. Plus, he had no idea who his opponent was going to be. From what he had heard it had been a last minute jump in from some new trainer around, for which he was glad for. Still it would be nice to know who his opponent was going to be. Well, he would find out soon enough anyway, because there was his grandfather stepping on top of the platform.

("Here it goes.") he thought to himself.

"For all life on our islands…" his grandfather began the prayer "...and for those who undertake the island challenge with joy in their hearts, we pray for your protection. For them and all Melemele."

Hau could hear the sincerity in his grandfather's voice.

"May this Pokémon battle be an offering to our island's guardian deity - Tapu Koko!

Before you stands Hau - grandson to the Kahuna."

That was pretty much Hau's cue to step onto the platform, which he did with swift and slightly stiff steps. Hopefully, no one noticed this.

"Before him stands Moon - the traveler who came all the way from Kanto."

("Wait, what?! Moon?! As in the same girl we were looking for the other day?!")

Hau found his thoughts to be confirmed when he saw an almost completely bandaged, red-haired girl walking up on the other side of the platform. She was trailed by a Pokémon Hau was pretty much unfamiliar with. Although, didn't he spot this one just yesterday inside the house of the girl?

Moon for her part had her arms crossed and was glaring at Hau as if he was her mortal enemy or something. This only proved to increase the nervousness the boy was feeling, to which he however only brightened his smile. It always made him feel better to smile the fear away.

"Hey, are you al-?"

"If you ask if I'm alright, I'm gonna toss you into the ocean!"

"Yikes!" Somebody was in a bad mood.

"Let's make one thing clear," she spoke in a softer tone. "I'm only doing this because I owe you one for yesterday. My dad taught me to pay back my debts, as minimal as they might appear. And you did me a huge favor yesterday, in my opinion."

"Er… it was nothing, really." Hau smiled lightheartedly. "But thanks anyway, I really appreciate you doing this for me."

"Moon! Hau! Bring forth the power of your Pokémon!"

"Let's see what you got, Zeveon!"

"Zee!"

Her Pokémon, now identified as a Zeveon, ran in front of her and took on a fighting stance. She fledged her teeth and hissed at Hau, who for a moment was sure the Pokémon was going to jump against his throat.

"All right. Popplio, let's go!" Hau shouted, throwing his Pokéball. The ball opened itself in mid-air and released the water-type in a flash of light. Popplio struck a pose in mid-air, before dropping to the ground. His eyes met that of his opponent, but he only paid brief attention to the Zeveon, for his gaze soon fell onto the trainer of the Pokémon. And as soon as he did, he knew it. He knew that this girl was dangerous. He didn't know why or in what way she was dangerous, but all of his instincts screamed at him to get away, far, far away from this girl immediately! And when a Pokémon's instincts went so much into overdrive as his did, well he knew better than to disobey them! Even if it meant disobeying his new friend.

The crowd was pretty much dumbstruck when they saw Popplio making a 180-degree turn and "running" as fast away as his body allowed him to move on land. Moon reacted quickly and mentally stopped Zeveon from chasing the poor, scared Pokémon. In all honesty, Moon didn't know what she had been expecting. The weaklings always ran away, while the stronger ones downright tried to kill her. Nebby must have been nothing more than a fluke or something. Perhaps her instincts weren't as pronounced as that of other Pokémon or perhaps the little Pokémon just saw her as a protector, since the girl saved her from a deadly fall.

"Hey, Popplio! Where are you going?!" Hau shouted after his Pokémon, completely taken off guard.

"Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!"

("What is he saying?") Moon asked her Pokémon.

("Nothing, princess. He's simply making grunting noises. He's scared of something.")

("I think I have a good idea, what he's scared off.")

"Popplio! Hey!" Hau ran off the platform and after his Pokémon. The young boy decided to step into his Pokémon's way, but that didn't help at all. Popplio simply changed direction and continued to get away as fast as possible.

"Popplio!"

"What's wrong with that Pokémon?" one of the villagers murmured.

"Maybe it's scared of the girl's Pokémon?"

"It does look kinda scary…"

("And that's why I'll never be a trainer.") Moon thought to herself. ("Might as well go now. I'm getting hungry anyway.")

However, before Moon could do as much as recall Zeveon from the platform when a sudden cry echoed through the entire village.

"Kooo-koooo!"

Before anyone's brains could fully register what was happening, a Pokémon came flying down so fast, even Moon's and Zeveon's enhanced eyesights had trouble following it. A split second later, the Pokémon stopped, having descended right next to Hau's Popplio.

"What the hell?" Moon asked no one in particular.

"I-it's Tapu-Koko!"

"What is HE doing here?"

"Don't tell me… he is going to punish the boy for not fighting?"

The atmosphere inside the village immediately grew tense.

"This is… Tapu-Koko?" Moon spoke carefully. It had to be the oddest Pokémon, nay, creature in the entire universe she had ever seen and she wouldn't even know how to begin to describe this creature. But what she did know, was if this Island Guardian decided to attack, she would be in really deep shit.


	7. Chapter 7

Moon watched with a mixture of fascination and weariness, as the legendary Pokémon Tapu-Koko himself was doing what could only be described as consulting Hau's popplio. Looking around, she could see that the population of Iki Town was just as speechless. Hau in the meantime looked like he was about to fall over like a statue, from the way his body was tensed up. Tapu-Koko in the meantime didn't notice the stares or more probable he ignored them in favor of Popplio.

"Koko. Tapu. Kokoko," the legendary pokémon spoke.

"Popplio…pop, pop," the water-type replied, holding his head down.

"Tapu? Koko, ko, tapu."

"Lio, lio. Popplio."

"Ko. Ta. Pu, pu, koko."

Tapu-Koko got to Popplio's level and put a reassuring hand on the other Pokémon's shoulder.

"Tapu-Koko, your local legendary consultant. Sign up now, for only 9.99 the first month," Moon joked aloud, getting the attention of everyone in town, even that of the Pokémon. Popplio looked up fearfully, while Tapu-Koko's expression didn't change. After a moment, he just shrugged off the human's comment and turned his attention back to the frightened Popplio.

"Koko, tapu, tapu. Ta. Pu. Tapu-Koko." The legendary Pokémon gestured towards Moon and Zeveon. The water-type looked up and involuntarily flinched a little when his gaze fell on Moon.

("What are they talking about?") Moon thought towards Zeveon, who answered immediately.

("It appears as if Tapu-Koko is trying to convince Popplio that you are not a threat, princess.") Zeveon thought back.

"Go figure…" Moon mumbled to herself. Although she had already thought that something along those lines was happening, it still surprised her to some degree, when she got the confirmation.

As Popplio and Tapu-Koko continued their "session", whispers began to arise among the villagers. The hybrid didn't listen to them, but instead, she walked over to Hau, who up to this point had been staring at the two Pokémon. Zeveon followed her closely. Hau looked at Moon when the girl arrived right next to him.

"M-Moon! What's going on?!" the boy exclaimed.

Before Moon could give him an answer, the two were suddenly face to face with Tapu-Koko himself.

"Whoa!" Both of them exclaimed when the Pokémon seemingly out of nowhere appeared in front of their faces. The legendary looked at Hau, who in return was in a state of shock.

"Popplio." The small water-type announced himself and crawled towards his trainer.

"Popplio, are you alright?" Hau asked worried while picking his Pokémon up.

"Popplio…" the Pokémon replied, looking sadly at his trainer.

"I guess your Pokémon is suffering from a bit of stage fright," Moon said with a grin while putting her arms behind her head.

"Huh? Stage friend?" Hau repeated.

"Why else do you think Popplio ran away? Unless he's scared of Zeveon of course. She does look a little scary."

"Zee!" The bug-type looked up to her princess, acting as if it was offended. Moon bend down and ruffled her Pokémon's back affectionately. This appeared to please Zeveon, as she let out a sound that was supposed to be purring but sounded like something else entirely.

"Is that true Popplio?" Hau asked his Pokémon. Popplio, who was still in Hau's arms, looked down at both Moon and Zeveon. He almost automatically flinched when his gaze fell upon the hybrid, who at this point was solely focused on her own Pokémon. Seeing the fear in his pokémon's eyes, Hau assumed that Moon was right in her second assumption. And truth to be told, he couldn't really blame the little water-type. Zeveon looked a little scary that much Hau could see. He could only imagine how scary the bug-type must look in the eyes of such a small pokémon. And although he had been really looking forward to this day, the last thing the young boy wanted to do was make his pokémon feel uncomfortable.

"So, should we cancel the fight?" he asked his water-type. He himself had to flinch when he heard several gasps and whispers coming from the crowd. After all, this was not any big occasion. This was a tribute to their guardian deity, who was still flying right next to Hau. The people of this town naturally were afraid they would face some kind of retribution from Tapu-Koko or worse, abandon the town altogether. The young boy did his best to turn out the whispers and fully focused on his pokémon. To his delight and slight surprise, Popplio shook his head vigorously and exclaimed. "Popplio!" The water-type had determination written all over his face.

"Are you sure?"

"Popplio!"

The young boy smiled and nodded at his pokémon, before turning towards the legendary pokémon, who was watching him and his pokémon. Hau was still taken aback by the fact that the guardian deity himself was floating right in front of him. The legendary pokémon looked like it was waiting for something and the townspeople held their breaths, as Hau talked to the electric and fairy-type.

"Uh...thank you for cheering up Popplio, Tapu-Koko."

"Koko," the guardian deity nodded, accepting the thanks. He briefly turned his head towards Moon and Zeveon, who both regarded the guardian deity with curious yet at the same time suspicious gazes. Ignoring those two for the moment, Tapu-Koko returned his attention to Hau.

"Koko?" the deity asked and pointed at Popplio.

"Lio! Pop, pop!"

Hau smiled at the declaration of his pokémon, even though he could only guess what his water-type had said.

"Yeah, we're doing this," he told Tapu-Koko.

"Tapu!" The guardian deity flew over to Hala and took a position right next to the man. Hau's grandfather did his best to keep himself composed and failed miserably. He was just as surprised as anyone else to see the guardian deity placing himself right next to the Kahuna, having involuntarily taken a step back.

"Tapu-Koko…" Hala breathed out. The pokémon in question glanced over to the Kahuna and gave him a curt nod, before returning his attention to the field in front of him.

"So, wait. A pokémon is going to be our referee now?" Moon asked aloud, tilting her head. As if to confirm her suspicion Tapu-Koko screamed: "Ko!"

Moon looked over to Hau, who in return had a bright smile on his face. "Isn't that awesome?! Tapu-Koko himself is going to watch our battle personally!"

Apparently, the crowd agreed with Hau as there were various whispers among them as to how great of an honor it was that the guardian deity himself had decided to watch over this battle personally.

Moon gave the legendary pokémon one last look before she silently decided to return to her position on the battlefield, with Zeveon doing the same, placing herself in front of her princess. Hau and Popplio quickly followed and although the latter still felt more than just nervous, Tapu-Koko's presence alone appeared to have calmed him down significantly.

"Tapu-Koko," Hala spoke up, silencing all of the whisperings among the crowd. "It is a great honor that you grant us today."

"Ko." Tapu-Koko simply nodded and then turned his first to Hau and Popplio, after which he looked at Moon and Zeveon. Moon had her arms crossed and was once again glaring down at Hau as if he was her mortal enemy or something.

"Tapu…" the legendary pokémona raised both arms. "KOKO!" both arms were slammed down, like an actual referee would do with his or her flags, indicating the beginning of the fight.

"Quick attack!" Moon shouted automatically, having had the words on her lips for quite some time. Although this had been a bit of a gamble since she had still no idea what kind of attacks Zeveon was actually capable of. This time she had gotten lucky and Zeveon executed the attack just as fast as it was named. Hau's eyes had trouble keeping up with the bug-type, before it crashed into Popplio, sending the screaming water-type flying.

"Popplio!" Hau shouted in shock, as the water-type crashed down in front of him. However, Popplio immediately got back up again, glaring over at his opponent.

"Yeah, let's counterattack!" Hau declared. "Water Gun!"

("I don't need to tell you to dodge, do I?") Moon talked to her underling telepathically. She always found it ridiculous how trainers needed to tell their pokémon to dodge an attack. Popplio took in a quick breath and spit out his Water Gun attack. Naturally, Zeveon jumped out of the way, but Popplio was far from stupid too. He simply readjusted his aiming and hit Zeveon in mid-air. And while certainly, the bug-type was being pushed away, once she landed, she firmly held her stance, until eventually, Popplio stopped the Water Gun. The bug-type appeared to be unaffected, aside from getting a little wet.

"Again Popplio!"

("Do you have any ranged attacks yourself?") Moon asked while Zeveon ran in a circle in order to avoid the water. In response, Zeveon opened her mouth and shot out a green substance out of her mouth. However, due to her running, her aim was a bit off. The green stuff hit the ground right next to Popplio, who was surprised to see the wood right next to him disappear. White haze rose from the place Zeveon hit and once it disappeared, it revealed a hole in the wood.

"What was that?" Hau exclaimed.

"Acid Spray," Hala recognized the attack.

("I guess that's what the three sacks on her back are for.") Moon realized. ("Any bug-type attacks?")

Once again Zeveon didn't answer verbally, rather she stormed directly at Popplio with her mouth open and her teeth glowing in a white light.

"Out of the way, Popplio!" Hau screamed at his water-type. The problem here was that the water-type's body shape didn't allow him to move fast out of the water. As a result, while he was running, he got bit in his fish-tail, making him scream in pain.

("This doesn't taste so bad.") Zeveon thought to herself, but Moon heard it none-the-less and had to suppress a laugh.

Popplio in the meantime didn't take too kindly into his tail being bitten. He turned around, growled at the bug-type and began hitting Zeveon with Pound over and over and over again. It almost looked like he was using Double Slap over and over again. While it was hilarious to watch Zeveon simply enduring the onslaught, Moon didn't plan on doing this.

"Acid Spray!" she shouted.

"Oh no!" was all Hau could shout before the acid directly hit Popplio's tail. The acid entered the wounds caused by the Bug Bite, causing the water-type to scream in agony, the pain seemingly being unbearable to him. Popplio lashed out with his tail, swinging Zeveon around in the air. The bug-type let go of the tail and was flung into the air. She managed to land on all fours, seemingly no worse for wear, despite being constantly pounded by Popplio earlier.

"Are you alright, Popplio?" Hau asked his pokémon as said pokémon was busy blowing air over the wound, in order to decrease the burning feeling on the bite marks.

"Popplio…" he whined but nonetheless turned back towards his opponent.

"Alright, let's show Moon and Zeveon what we're made off!" The boy enthusiastically declared. "Use Growl!"

Moon knew what Growl did or at least was supposed to do. It was supposed to make oneself appear cute and as such make the opponent less wary, causing his physical attacks to become less effective. The key word, in this case, was "supposed". The concept of morale was quite frankly foreign to the Zerg, or to be more precise to the 99% that didn't have a will on their own. Zeveon belonged to that 99%. Is it cute? Kill it. Is it cuddly? Kill it. Is it both? Bring it to the princess. That was the simple logic most Zerg worked on. Long story short, Growl had no effect on Zeveon, although it wasn't really obvious.

"Acid Spray!"

"Water Gun!"

The attacks collided in mid-air, both pokémon pumping out their respective fluids to the best of their ability. Popplio drew the short stick in this situation and got a direct hit in the chest by the green stuff.

"Liooooo!" he screamed, as the acid did its work on his body.

"Oh no!" Hau screamed.

"I was afraid of that." In the crowd Professor Kukui was standing right next to his assistant Lillie, having a small frown on his face.

"Afraid of what?" Lillie inquired.

"The battle," Kukui answered. "It's completely one-sided. Zeveon has obviously more fighting experience, due to her coming from the wild. Popplio, on the other hand, was raised to be partnered up with an inexperienced trainer. He barely has any fighting experience himself."

"Oh." Lillie looked at Popplio worriedly, who barely managed to get back up.

"Finish him off!" Moon ordered her pokémon. Zeveon took this to heart and charged directly at the opposing water-type. But before she could hit Popplio, Tapu-Koko decided to intervene. The guardian deity got directly between Zeveon and Popplio, with the bug-type barely being able to stop herself from running into the legendary pokémon.

"Zee!" she shouted at the intervening deity, who shook his head.

"It seems Tapu-Koko has decided that the fight shall end now," Kahuna Hala spoke up.

"You heard the man, Zeveon," Moon called out to her pokémon. "Come back here."

Zeveon growled at Tapu-Koko but obediently walked over to Moon at a leisure pace. The hybrid bent down and gave her pokémon a few strokes on the back. The eevee-evolution leaned into the touch, visibly enjoying.

"That was great Popplio!" Hau called out to his water-type. "You deserve a rest." The Kahuna's grandchild took out his pokéball and recalled his pokémon. While he was putting his ball away, Tapu-Koko flew over to Moon and stopped only a few inches away from the girl. All attention was now on the foreigner and the island's guardian deity. Moon herself felt more than just a little anxious upon having the legendary pokémon up front and close to her. Zeveon growled from beneath but was ignored by both parties.

Tapu-Koko stretched out his right arm and it was then that the redhead noticed that the guardian deity was holding a white sparkling stone. Understanding the motion, Moon held out her hand. A second later Tapu-Koko dropped the stone into Moon's hand. She mentally noted that it felt somewhat warm, meaning he had probably been holding it for quite some time.

"What's that?" Moon asked, inspecting the stone. She noted that there was a small part hollowed out, making it look like something was supposed to be inserted there.

"This is…!" Moon heard the Kahuna exclaim, but Tapu-Koko once more demanded her attention. For now, he held out his left arm, which contained another stone. Just by looking at it, Moon could see that it was somehow green glowing. It also appeared as if it had been broken off from something. Now really curious as to why the legendary pokémon had not one, but two gifts for her, she held out her other hand and accepted the gift, which was dropped into her palm.

Moon turned the stone in her hand and the first thing she saw was that the green glow came from a triangle shape crystal or gem that was attached to the side of the rock. She raised both of her eyebrows after seeing this, as this stone was probably worth a fortune. Turning it one more time, she found out that one part of the stone was flat with curvy engravings on it. After three seconds of staring at the engravings, Moon's expression turned from curiosity into a mix of shock and anger.

"Where the hell did you get that?!" she shouted at the electric and fairy-type, shocking everyone in town. Tapu-Koko for his part had a smug grin on his face.#

"Koko, koko. Tapu."

Moon looked down at Zeveon, who looked back up. The two faced each other like this for a total of five seconds, before Moon turned her attention back to Tapu-Koko.

"Are you fucking serious?" she growled, keeping her voice down.

"Tapu-Koko?" The guardian deity tapped at the white stone.

"Koko-Tapu." The legendary pokémon tapped on the green stone.

Moon glared at the guardian deity for a few more moments. At this point, the townsfolk was actively talking to each other.

"Did you hear how disrespectful the girl has been to Tapu-Koko?"

"How dare she? And after he gave her those gifts to her."

"I believe one of those stones is a Z-Stone, isn't it?"

"I need to check this," Moon suddenly said to Tapu-Koko. And afterward, without any warning, she ran off. Many people were surprised, when all of the sudden both Moon and Zeveon took off, ran around the crowd and took the quickest way out of Iki Town.

"Hey, where are you going?!" Hau shouted after Moon and was about to chase the girl when Tapu-Koko came in the boy's way. Hau nearly crashed into the pokémon, if it weren't for the legendary flying a little backward.

"Hey, what gives?!" Hau shouted, but Tapu-Koko just shook his head.

XXX

Moon ran faster than was humanly possible. She didn't even follow the path that travelers usually took when walking to Iki Town. Rather she crossed through the woods and even went as far as to slide down slopes, whenever they came up. Zeveon easily managed to keep up with her mistress. She ran right beside Moon, whenever the terrain allowed it. She only occasionally needed to dodge a tree or jump over a bush.

In around twenty minutes the two arrived at their still relatively new home. It appeared as if Moon's caretaker had already taken care of the broken door and had it replaced. The hybrid girl wondered just how Delaila managed to get a new door so fast, but this train of thought was quickly forgotten, as there was an envelope lying right in front of the said door. It was addressed to her. Recognizing Delaila's handwriting, Moon quickly opened it and read the contents.

~Moon, please don't destroy any more doors. I am grocery shopping right now. The new key is hidden at the usual spot.

Mom~

Moon rolled her eyes in amusement, after reading the letter. "The usual spot, huh? That would be…" she said aloud, while already walking towards the garage. The so-called "usual spot" turned out to be nothing special. There just a bunch of empty flower pots stacked on top of each other and the key was underneath all of them. After retrieving the key, Moon opened the house door and walked in, alongside Zeveon. They found Meowth sleeping soundly on the couch in the living room and pretty much left the normal-type alone. The hybrid walked straight into her room and after Zeveon was inside, she closed the door and locked it. While the bug-type made it herself comfortable on Moon's bed, the girl in question headed over to her closet and started rummaging through it.

"Okay, where did I leave it?" the girl asked aloud while throwing random pieces of clothing out of the closet.

"Not here, not here, not there… what is my mom's underwear doing here? Not here, not here…"

This went on for around ten minutes, in which Moon almost completely emptied her closet. When she finally found what she was looking for, she stretched her arm out, holding an electronic device in her hand. It had vaguely the shape of a Game Boy, only it was overall larger with more buttons and a larger screen.

("What is this Terran device, princess?") Zeveon asked.

"A PIG," the princess rep

("Pig?")

"It's an acronym for some fancy words or other," Moon explained dismissively while throwing her clothes back into her closet. "It's a device with which you can do a lot of things. For example, check if the water is poisoned, a certain fruit edible and lots more stuff. These things are standard equipment in every Terran flying vehicle. The Medivac in which I was brought in had one too."

("I see. But why do you require this device? Our bodies adapt to every poison we're exposed to.")

"I'm not using it to look for poison," she told her pokémon while jumping onto her bed. The two rocks she had received from Tapu-Koko were lying on her pillow. Zeveon placed herself right next to the princess, so she could get a good look at the stones. Moon in the meantime turned on her PIG and watched as the screen lit up. After all the functions were available to her, Moon was busy going through all of the options the PIG offered to her. Since it had so many functions and it had been months since she last used the thing, not that she used it much anyways. Though that might change in the near future.

The first thing Moon did was calling up some old images that were basically public record in the dominion and had been downloaded onto the PIG at some point or other. Specifically, she searched for the topic "Xel'Naga". Now, of course, Moon personally had more knowledge about the ancient alien race than even most archaeologists. But she wasn't interested in what was written about those pictures, she just needed them for comparison. To be more precise she compared the writing of some Xel'naga that was found with the rock she had gotten from the legendary pokémon. And after some checking, it turned out some symbols matched up and some others looked pretty similar.

"It's a real Xel'Naga artifact," Moon whispered to herself, looking away from the screen and onto the stone. "Where the hell did that pokémon found a Xel'Naga artifact?"

("We could always extract the information out of him.") Zeveon offered, to which Moon pressed the pokémon's face on the bed for a couple of seconds.

"No, stupid. Mom specifically forbid me and by extension you to infest other things and go into someone's brain without them saying it's okay for me to do so."

Moon let out a sigh, closing the pictures. "So, Tapu-Koko said he'll give me more parts of this thing if we do the Island Challenge. Did I get that right?"

("Indeed, princess. That is exactly what he said.")

"It's like he already knows what we are. But how the everlasting fuck does he know that? If there were any other Zerg on the planet, I would know it! Can this fucker read the Xel'Naga language or something?"

("I wouldn't know, princess.")

"That was a rhetorical question," Moon deadpanned at her pokémon. "Tch, great. What am I supposed to do? I can either accept and go on this Island Challenge," Moon cringed, just thinking about how trainers would send their pokémon out against her, only for said pokémon to either run away or charge directly at Moon. She doubted Tapu-Koko would be there every single time in order to save the situation. "Or I can refuse and potentially lose my only chance in finding out what the hell the Xel'Naga were doing on this planet."

Moon found herself being torn between her bad experience with pokémon and her curiosity about the race that was responsible for creating the Zerg in the first place. She placed her head on the pillow, contemplating the situation, which resulted in both rocks hitting her head on both sides. Feeling both rocks on her hair, the hybrid actually found herself reminded that there was one more thing she originally wanted to do with the PIG. Figuring that it wouldn't hurt to go through with her original plan, Moon used the PIG's scanning function and used on it on the white rock she had received from Tapu-Koko.

After a couple of minutes, she got a general result of the stuff what the stone was made off. Quite frankly, Moon hadn't even heard of many of these things that were listed in front of her. After all, chemistry and physics were topics that weren't covered until later in the school system on this planet.

"Okay, that's weird," the hybrid noted. "The stone is giving off some kind of energy, but the PIG can't tell me what exactly it is."

("Is it dangerous?")

"I have no idea. I guess I have to ask Hala or Kukui…" Just mentioning those two humans, caused Moon to involuntarily flinch again. No doubt they and everyone else had questions about Moon's sudden escape from the scene. She had not been thinking clearly at this moment, being way more interested in knowing whether this was a real Xel'Naga artifact piece or just a random stone that looked awfully similar to what the Xel'Naga had constructed. And now that she had the answers and calmed somewhat down, mostly from doing all the running, she realized that she would have to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions very soon.

"Urrgh, this is gonna be a pain," the girl groaned. In an attempt to distract herself, she actually tried to understand the multiple pages long text about the white stone that her personal PIG had spat out for her. Emphasize being in this case "tried". It didn't matter that her Zerg brain caught up to thinks a lot faster than that of a Terran. She simply didn't know even a quarter of the stuff that was spelled out in front of her. But it passed the time, somewhat. At some point, Meowth made himself vocal from outside of her door and she decided to let him in. Meowth then went on to have a chat with Zeveon. Moon only listened in for a minute or two, as their talk seemingly resolved around which berry tasted the best.

After even more time had passed, Moon eventually decided to shut down the PIG and hide the device once again. There was no need for Delaila to accidentally stumble upon the device and find out about Moon's true heritage. Just as she was about to place the PIG back where she found it, the doorbell rang all of the sudden.

("I can smell Lillie and Nebby outside the door.") Zeveon informed her immediately.

"Crap." Having no time to properly hid the PIG, Moon simply put it under the covers of her bed and quickly headed towards the new front door. After she opened said door, it was revealed that indeed Lillie was standing in front of Moon, with her huge bag hanging from her shoulder.

"H-hello Moon," Lillie greeted the hybrid nervously. Moon in return couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Come in," the redhead motioned with her head and opened the door further, allowing Lillie to step in. As soon as the sound of the door slamming shut echoed throughout the house, Nebby took this as her cue to jump out of the bag, letting out a happy squeal. The pokémon did a little "air dance" around Moon.

"Hihi, she really likes you," Lillie commented.

"I noticed," Moon responded. After three rounds around the redheaded hybrid, the psychic-type settled down right next to Lillie.

"So...umm… are you alright? Your wounds haven't reopened, have they?" the blonde asked, causing the hybrid to almost laugh out loud.

"I'm fine, don't worry. You're probably wondering why I ran like the entire Golden Armada was after me."

"Golden Armada?" Lillie asked, blinking confusedly.

"An alien space fleet," the hybrid waved off dismissively. "Anyways, come with me. I've got to show you something."

Moon led Lillie and Nebby into her room, where they found Meowth and Zeveon wrestling each other in a mock-battle with the normal-type clearly losing. Nebby decided that this looked like a ton of fun and decided to join, by making the best mimic of a Body Slam she could muster. The three ended up rolling over the ground and entangled in each others body part.

The redhead carefully stepped over the pile of pokémon and picked up the green and black stone from her pillow, which she then proceeded to show to Lillie.

"Do you know what this is?" the hybrid asked in a rhetoric fashion.

"Uh…. no, not really." The blonde shook her head, after inspecting the stone for some time. "I have never seen those symbols."

"I see," Moon nodded. "Well, it would have really surprised me if you would have seen anything like this before. After all, this thing was made by an alien race, known as the Xel'Naga."

"A-a-alien?!" Lillie repeated, holding both hands in front of her mouth.

"Yup, an alien race by the way that was technologically so advanced, they created two other races. The Zerg being one of them."

Lillie found herself dropping onto Moon's chair upon hearing this information. She thought she had heard it all when Moon revealed herself to be half human and half alien. Well, apparently she had been wrong.

"Xel'Naga… they created an entire alien race?"

"Two," Moon corrected. "The Zerg and the Protoss."

"You… mentioned them earlier today, didn't you?" the blonde asked, to which the redhead nodded.

"Yeah, but I'll tell you another time about them. You see, after Tapu-Koko for some reason decided to give me this stone, I… I needed some time to digest everything. You know, it's kinda a big deal for me."

"Y-yes, I can see that," Lillie nodded. "But why did Tapu-Koko give you this stone?" The blonde looked down at the pile of pokémon. "It was pretty amazing when he showed up and calmed Hau's pokémon down. And then he even personally refereed your fight! You should have seen the Professor, he barely managed to stand still."

"Tell me about it," Moon smiled back at the blonde. "Anyways, I know why Tapu-Koko gave the stone to me."

"You do?" Lillie blinked, surprised.

The redhead scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, you see, there are a lot of things I haven't told you about us Zerg. It's a lot to cover. You see, all Zerg share something that is commonly called a hivemind. Do you know what that is?"

"No," Lillie answered immediately.

"Basically, imagine every Zerg brain being an antenna. And that antenna is constantly sending and receiving information from other Zerg like a TV would from a station." Moon explained, causing Lillie's eyes to widen even further.

"Does that mean… you can read Zeveon's mind?" Lillie asked with excitement in her voice.

"And vice-versa," Moon confirmed. "The best part is, there is no real language barrier, because thoughts are...actually, I have no idea how this works, I never bothered asking." The redhead frowned, crossing her arms.

"That's amazing!" Lillie exclaimed, her face showing nothing but excitement. "That means Zeveon can work as your interpreter and tell you what a pokémon is saying."

The redhead simply nodded.

"Incredible! Quick! Can you tell me what Nebby is saying?" By this point, Lillie had jumped up from the chair and was looking with great anticipation. Moon couldn't help but smile at the blonde's enthusiasm. She quickly listened in to Zeveon's thoughts and said what she heard.

"That's not fair. You two are the ones teaming up on me. Because you're so freakishly strong!" Moon smiled sheepishly over to Lillie.

"I think I just translated what all three were saying."

"Amazing!" Lillie's eyes seemed to sparkle.

Indeed, Meowth and Nebby had teamed up on Zeveon and despite this, she was still dominating the two in their mock-battle. It was probably good that none of them used any actual attack but simply slammed their bodies against each other.

"This is… I can't even describe it! So that's how you could understand what Tapu-Koko said to you!"

"Yup." The redhead once again nodded. "I'm sure you want to know what Tapu-Koko said." Another sigh escaped her lips. "Basically, he asked me to do something called the Island Challenges. He promised me to give another piece of the complete… whatever this thing is," she gestured at the stone "every time I finish another challenge or something along those lines. I have no real idea what he meant."

"This is… big. So, are you going to do it?" Lillie asked, already expecting the answer to be "yes". However, what she got was a deep and long sigh coming out of the hybrid.

"Honestly, I'm not sure," the hybrid said with closed eyes.

"Not sure?" Lillie repeated.

"Remember? I never wanted to go on a Pokémon Journey and just this morning Delaila finally agreed with me."

"Oh… right," the blonde human spoke slowly, remembering the conversation they had this morning. "But why?" she inquired.

"...I… I have no real reason," Moon lied. "I just don't like going on a journey like this. I can't really explain it, aside from I just don't want."

"Oh…" Lillie was clearly dissatisfied with that answer, expecting some deeper reason.

"But," Moon opened her eyes "you know, it's a pretty attractive offer, potentially finding out more stuff about an alien race that died out who knows how many years ago." She looked at the green, glowing stone, thinking.

"Well… shouldn't you take it? I mean, if Tapu-Koko himself went as far as to offer this personally for you-"

"Yeah, see," Moon interrupted "here's another thing. How the hell did that pokémon know I would know what that stone is? I mean, does he know about the Xel'Naga? Does he know about the Zerg? The Protoss? Are pokémon another race that the Xel'Naga created? There are so many freaking questions, I don't know where to start!" Moon exclaimed.

Lillie took a moment to digest everything that went through Moon's head, in addition to everything she had learned these past five minutes. It looked like if she continued to hang out with Moon, she would have to get used to these kinds of things. There were a lot of things she had trouble understanding, things she would have to ask Moon to explain to her further. But she did know one thing.

"Well, you won't get any of those answers if you don't do the Island Challenges, will you?"


End file.
